NGO Action News – 02 January 2025

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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.

You may find issues of the NGO Action News in Spanish here.

You may find issues of the NGO Action News in French here.

You may find issues of the NGO Action News in Arabic here.

Middle East

• On 1 January, Al-Haq published the report “How to Hide a Genocide: The Role of Evacuation Orders and Safe Zones in Israel’s Genocidal Campaign in Gaza”. In this report, the NGO examined the central role played by orders to evacuate to alleged “safe zones”, issued by Israeli forces, clearing vast stretches of the Gaza Strip of its inhabitants, which could constitute the war crime and crime against humanity of forcible transfer.
• On 31 December, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights released the report “Generation Wiped Out: Gaza’s Children in the Crosshairs of Genocide”, highlighting what the NGO considers a systematic and deliberate crime of genocide committed by Israel against children in the Gaza Strip. The report sheds light on acts such as killing, serious physical and mental harm, and subjecting children to living conditions intended to destroy them. It also emphasizes the absence of international accountability.
• On 30 December, Gisha published “Women on the line”, a testimony from a psychologist, nurse, and midwife from Gaza, who described the threats to women’s lives during the war and humanitarian crisis. The author stated that these living conditions put women and girls in Gaza at serious risk of disease and infection.
• On 30 December, Al Mezan published an article informing that the Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza, was officially out of service following repeated attacks on and near the hospital since the start of the Israeli military ground invasion in the North Gaza Governorate in October 2024, adding that three other hospitals were attacked in the last week of December as well. The NGO stated that these attacks formed part of a broader strategy aimed at dismantling Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure, leaving thousands of civilians – many critically injured – without access to medical care.
• On 26 December, BADIL released a video reflecting Palestinian refugees’ voices on the importance of UNRWA to their right to protection, and especially their right to the provision of services. The video features Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Lebanon, as they discuss the vital role of UNRWA and its services. They contextualized the latest legislations passed by the Israeli parliament against the Agency and highlighted the impact the dismantlement of UNRWA would have on their respective communities and the Palestine refugee question at large.
• On 26 December, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights alerted that Israeli forces were continuing to target and kill journalists in the Gaza Strip, with 201 journalists killed since
  7 October 2023, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office. The NGO added that Israel aimed to monopolize the narrative and orchestrate a media blackout to prevent the world from seeing the atrocities committed against the Palestinian people while denying international journalists’ access to Gaza to cover the alleged genocide.

Africa, Asia and Europe

• On 30 December, Law for Palestine published a recording of the webinar “ICJ Advisory Opinion: Enforcing Accountability, Challenging Apartheid, and Unseating Israel from the UNGA”. The event explored the legal implications of the ICJ AO on the illegality of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territory and examined actionable strategies for accountability and justice. It also discussed the legal obligations of third-party states to end complicity in Israel’s occupation and “apartheid” regime, the application of international law in defining apartheid, mechanisms for holding Israel accountable, and practical steps for implementing the ICJ AO, including the possibility of unseating Israel from the UN General Assembly.
• On 30 December, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor informed that, since October 2023, the number of crimes involving premeditated killing, killing under torture, torture, ill-treatment, and enforced disappearances of Palestinian prisoners and detainees – particularly those from the Gaza Strip – had increased at an unprecedented rate in the prisons and detention facilities operated by the Israeli army and prison administration authorities. The NGO added that the recent deaths of 5 detainees brought to over 54 the total number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees killed in Israeli prisons and detention facilities since 7 October 2023. On the same issue, Al Mezan called for international actions to protect Palestinian prisoners.

North America

• On 6 January, the People’s Forum will organize in New York City a “Volunteer Meeting for Palestine” to discuss the current situation, make materials, and prepare outreach events.

United Nations

• On 31 December, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People published its quarterly newsletter on recent activities during the period October – December 2024.
• On 31 December, UNRWA published a social media statement from Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini informing that, since the beginning of the war, 258 UNRWA staff members have been killed and nearly 650 incidents against UNRWA buildings and facilities were recorded.
• On 30 December, a group of UN human rights experts, including UN special rapporteurs, stated that Israel must face the consequences of its campaign to undermine the legal framework for the protection of civilians in armed conflicts, as the full-scale armed assault on Gaza and forced displacement of its population continues unabated. The experts were particularly alarmed over events in northern Gaza, where they said Israel had grievously violated its obligations as an Occupying Power.