LOL ... yes there certainly were! I’m fact EVERYONE there was called a Palestinian!
They were either Palestinian Arabs or they were Palestinian Jews. And that goes WAY BACK! The Jerusalem Post of today was called The Palestine Post for decades before!
When Israel became independent, the name Palestinian Jew was changed to ISRAELI because of the existence of the new country.
And since there was no longer the two groups of “Palestinian Jew” and “Palestinian Arab” — the Arabs dropped the “Arab” part as redundant and simply went with “Palestinian”.
The Palestinians are Arabs who were brought to the region by the Ottoman empire as part of the Muslim occupation in the region. They are definitely not the tribes from Crete who settled down in the 5 cities of Gaza strip after the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. These tribes were called Philistines and they werent Arabs at all and todays Palestinians are definitely not their descendants. The Philistines dont exist as a nation.
Israel isn't just a name of a state. It's first and for all a name of a nation (Am Yisrael). Israel is the name of the father of the nation (Jacob) and Israelis are his descendants. The real meaning of the word 'Israeli' is someone who belongs to the nation of Israel and not only "a citizen of a state called Israel".
Gentiles invented the word Jews. When the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans occupied the land of Israel they called all the Israelis in the name 'Jews' because at those days the tribe of Judah was the biggest and the dominant tribe which survived the exile of Assyria in which 10 tribes of Israel were exiled. The tribe of Judah lived in the Judean desert thus the gentiles who occupied the land of Israel called the members of this tribe (and also the ones of Benjamin and Levi who joined it) in the name 'Jews'.
When Israelis (Jews) who live abroad go to synagogue they don't read about Jews in the prayer books nor in the Torah but about 'The Nation of Israel', 'The Children of Israel', 'The House of Israel,'Shema Yisrael' etc. They are Israelis because they belong to the nation of Israel even if they aren't citizens of a state called Israel. Both the words 'Jews' and 'Israelis' refer to nationality, to ethnic identity and not to religion. Jews are members of the tribe of Judah and not "people who believe in Judaism". And the nation isn't called Judah but Israel, and so does the land and in the future the 10 tribes will return to this nation.
That's why Arab citizens of Israel don't define themselves as Israelis but as Arab/"Palestinian" citizens of a state CALLED Israel. They aren't members of the Israeli nation but of the Ishmaelite nation. Ishmael used to shoot arrows at Isaac (father of Israel) while saying: "I'm only playing..." That's why there's no "Israeli-Palestinian conflict" but a WAR that the Ishmaelite/Arabs opened on the Israelis. Also Muhammad murdered Israelis in Saudi Arabia who refused to accept his murderous pagan dream.
Couple of facts about Israel that the haters of Israel don't like:
1. Israel became a state in 1312 B.C.E., two millennia before Islam.