Abstract Background Co-existence of depression and anxiety can be associated with severe detrimental consequences to the physical, mental and social wellbeing of the affected populations. This study was conducted to determine prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms among Palestinian medical students and to investigate associations between sociodemographic factors of the students with depressive and anxiety symptoms. Methods This study was conducted in a cross-sectional observational design using a questionnaire in the period between September 2018 and April 2019 in a major university in the West Bank of Palestine. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). The questionnaire also collected the sociodemographic characteristics of the students. Reliability of the questionnaire was tested using the test re-test method. A total of 425 medical students were invited to participate in the study. Res...