are persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli conflict. UNRWA's services are available to all those living in its area of operations who meet this definition, who are registered with the Agency and who need assistance. UNRWA's definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948. Since the definition used by UNRWA was originally made on an operational basis rather than dictated by specific international law, obligations and rights related to Palestinian refugees under international law are a matter of some debate. The debate centers on questions such as: whether the status of refugees can properly be passed through inheritance to individuals who have never lived in the vacated areas, and whether individuals who have repatriated in other countries can legally claim refugee status. Palestinian refugees were excluded from the 1951 Convention due to the clause that "This Convention shall not apply to persons who are at present receiving from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees protection or assistance." As interpreted by UNHCR, this caused some anomalies, since UNRWA admits some persons as refugees that are not automatically admitted by the Convention, and, conversely, some of the legal protections given to refugees by the Convention were not available to most Palestinians. In 2002, UNHCR adopted a revised interpretation that fills some of these gaps. The BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights published a critical analysis of UNHCR revised interpretation of the 1951 Refugee Convention. References Arab–Israeli peace diplomacy and treaties Paris Peace Conference, 1919 Faisal–Weizmann Agreement (1919) San Remo Conference, 1920 Palestine Mandate, 1922 1949 Armistice Agreements Camp David Accords (1978) Egypt–Israel peace treaty (1979) Madrid Conference of 1991 Oslo Accords (1993) Israel–Jordan peace treaty (1994) Camp David 2000 Summit Israeli–Palestinian peace process Projects working for peace among Israelis and Arabs List of Middle East peace proposals External links Collection of legal documents relating to the Middle East 1916–2003, Avalon Project – Yale Law School Israeli Supreme Court Judgement Regarding the Security Fence, June 24, 2004 Easy Guide to International Humanitarian Law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory International law Arab–Israeli conflict Legality of wars