NGO Action News – 01 May 2025

Scroll down for the PDF file.

This newsletter informs about recent and upcoming activities of Civil Society Organizations working on the question of Palestine. The Committee and the Division for Palestinian Rights of the UN Secretariat provide the information “as is” without warranty of any kind, and do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, or reliability of the information contained in the websites linked in the newsletter.

Middle East

• On 30 April, Al Mezan released a fact sheet on the rapidly deteriorating water crisis in Gaza. The fact sheet focused on the deliberate measures undertaken by the Israeli government since the reimposition of a total closure on Gaza on 2 March. According to the NGO, these included the complete cessation of delivery of humanitarian aid – including food, water, fuel, and medical supplies – alongside the targeted dismantling of critical water infrastructure. As a result, Al Mezan stated that over two million Palestinians, including one million children, are being denied access to sufficient, safe drinking water.
• On 30 April, Addameer and other NGOs sent an urgent appeal to the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Mr. Ghebreyesus, calling for immediate international intervention on the alarming health conditions of Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli prisons. The NGO stated that the appeal highlighted the outbreak of a number of diseases, adding that detainees were being denied their right to medical care.
• On 28 April, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights published the article “Rafah Under Fire and Siege … Israel’s Bombing of Houses and Arrest of Survivors as A Blatant Act of Genocide”. The NGO raised concern over the exacerbating humanitarian disaster resulting from the Israeli forces widescale ground invasion into Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and called on the international community to take immediate action to protect the civilians and to establish safe humanitarian corridors under international supervision to endure their unrestricted evacuation without fearing the risk of arrest.
• On 28 April, B’Tselem published the article “Desecration of Palestinian bodies by Israeli soldiers: another form of dehumanization”. The NGO stated that it had investigated several incidents in which Israeli forces were documented desecrating and mutilating the bodies of Palestinians in the West Bank. B’Tselem added that ample footage from the ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip showed that this practice was pervasive there as well, including running over bodies with military vehicles, scooping and burying bodies using bulldozers, and more.
• On 24 April, Gisha published the report “Habeas Corpus”, stating that since the start of the Gaza War hundreds, if not thousands, of Palestinians had vanished without a trace for weeks or months at a time after being taken into Israeli custody. Gisha stated that, despite concerted legal efforts by other human rights organizations, Israel continued to conceal the whereabouts of many detainees, routinely denying access to legal counsel, and subjecting people in its custody to inhumane conditions.

Africa, Asia and Europe

• On 29 April, Agence Média Palestine published an article (in French) raising alarm over the lack of food accessible to Palestinians in Gaza since Israel sealed off the former’s borders in early March. The NGO reported that at least 95% of UN and international aid agencies have suspended distributions, as their warehouses are now empty. Furthermore, on 1 April, all 25 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme in the Gaza Strip closed due to a lack of wheat flour and fuel.
• On 28 April, the Norwegian Refugee Council published the article “Forcibly displaced by Israeli settlers, a community longs to return home”, on the situation of the Palestinian herding community of Ein ar-Rashash, 20 kilometers from Nablus in the northern West Bank. With the establishment of multiple settlement outposts in the area came a stream of violent Israeli attacks and harassment that inflicted terror on the community, the NGO stated, adding that Palestinian herder communities in the West Bank have long borne the brunt of harm from Israel’s deepening occupation.
• On 28 April, the Palestinian Return Center informed that more than 65,000 children in Gaza have been hospitalized with severe malnutrition, as hunger and deprivation continued to spiral under Israel’s sustained blockade and military onslaught. The NGO added that human rights groups have also reported a dramatic collapse of living conditions in Gaza since 2 March when Israel completely shut down the territory’s main border crossings. The blockade has left Gaza’s population without access to essential goods, including food and medicines, exacerbating the suffering of those already displaced and under siege.

North America

• On 30 April, the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect published an article titled “ICJ Examines Israel’s Humanitarian Obligations Amid Israel’s Aid Blockade on Gaza.” The NGO stated that states must ensure their condemnations of Israel’s conduct in Gaza and participation in the ICJ hearings are accompanied by tangible and decisive actions, including through halting arms exports to Israel and imposing sanctions on Israeli officials. As Israel’s reinstated aid blockade on Gaza approaches the two-month mark, the NGO stated that Israel’s intentional obstruction of the entry and provision of life-saving aid constituted the continued deliberate starvation of a civilian population as a method of warfare.
• On 29 April, J Street issued a statement welcoming the introduction of a legislation designed to cut off support for groups and individuals promoting violence in the West Bank. The NGO added that violent settlers and the groups that support them were pursuing a mission that was antithetical to the values of democracy, justice and peace.

United Nations

• On 15 May, the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) will convene to observe the anniversary of the Nakba – the 1948 permanent displacement of more than half of the Palestinian population from their ancestral lands. The event will be followed by the screening of the documentary “From Ground Zero”, shedding light on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and exploring the impact of conflict on civilians and the broader implications for international peace and security. On the margins of this event, the Committee will convene on 15-16 May its 1st 2025 Civil Society Consultations “International Action Towards Ending the Nakba and Realizing the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People”. All Member States and Observers, United Nations organizations, and intergovernmental and civil society organizations are invited to attend. The events will take place in the ECOSOC Chamber at United Nations Headquarters.
• On 29 April, UN Secretary-General Guterres briefed the Security Council during the quarterly open debate on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Question. The Secretary-General stated that the region was undergoing fundamental upheavals, marked by violence and volatility, but also bringing opportunities and potential. He added that the promise of a two-State solution was at risk of dwindling to the point of disappearance as the political commitment to this long-standing goal was farther than it had ever been. The Chair of the CEIRPP, Ambassador Cory Seck, Permanent Representative of Senegal to the United Nations in New York, delivered a statement during the resumed session, condemning Israel’s use of disproportionate and unrelenting force, and urging concrete international action to end Israel’s aggression and occupation, and to secure a just peace that ensures the rights of the Palestinian people.
• On 28 April, UNRWA Commissioner-General Lazzarini stated that he welcomed the ICJ hearing on the presence and activities of the United Nations and other organizations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). He added that UNRWA and other agencies were present in the OPT to address overwhelming needs, and that the Agency’s services must continue unobstructed until there is a just and lasting solution to the plight of Palestine Refugees.