along with archeological digs, genetic testing, that Israelites (along with some other groups) were all sub-groups of the larger Canaanite group.
Additionally, thru archeological digs, Jericho was already destroyed by earthquakes by the time Joshua is supposed to have gotten there in the bible.
The Israelite subgroup was the first one that was able to unite the various city states in to a larger nation. (prior to that, it was torn between various empires, or ruled locally in small city states). The unification did not happen until the early iron age. And even then the independence did not last long, as it was either a vassal state or paid heavy tribute to empires like the Assyrians, Egyptians.
So it really was more of a civil war that took place between Canaanite groups than an invasion of an outside force during the time of Joshua.
We have learned a lot of this thanks to the great record keepers that empires usually are (in this case Egyptian, Hittite, Assyrian and finally Babylonians)
Since the term Palestinian did not come along until much much later, it is harder to determine if modern Palestinians were part of the larger Canaanite group, or came in later migrations of people.
Now obviously since there also was much intermarriage of what was referred to Israelites with other people (otherwise how would you get redheaded, blue eyed jewish people like my grandmother and uncle).
Bottom line is, it is very hard if not nearly impossible to trace any modern people's ancestry back to the Canaanites, due to the amount of intermarriage, etc that has taken place over the centuries. Hell there are probably people in Greece that have traces of Canaanite blood in them (From the days of Phoenicia). But then again, there are also few Greeks that can say they are full blooded Hellenites of old, due to the invasions of the Serbs, Albanians that took place in the latter stages of the Byzantine empire.
We also know that there was a Jewish kingdom returned under the Persians, conquered by Alexander the Great, split between the Ptolomeys, and Seleucids, before they regained their independence. (albeit for a short time until the Romans came along and reduced Judea to a vassal kingdom and finally a province). Now how much the people of Judea were directly related to the Israelites is up for debate, considering many of them were forced in to exile in to Babylon after the Kingdom of Judah was conquered and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.
Truth be told, the Samaritans are the ones that are probably the closest descendants of the ancient Canaanites.
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