NGO Action News – 03 April 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 2 April, Al-Mezan issued a press release alerting that Israel’s attack on Gaza did not stop during Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, as more than two million Palestinians faced continued mass forced displacement, critical food and water shortages, and relentless bombardment. The NGO stated that the Israeli military had been launching relentless airstrikes on residential homes and camps densely populated with internally displaced persons.
• On 1 April, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights published the article “Israeli Occupation Forces’ Execution of Ambulance and Civil Defense Crews After Their Arrest: A War Crime”. The NGO condemned the reported Israeli forces’ killing of members of ambulance and civil defense crews, who were on a humanitarian mission to rescue people in Rafah. The article further reads that preventing ambulance and civil defense teams from carrying out their rescue missions constitutes a war crime and violates Article 2 of the 1948 Genocide Convention.
• On 1 April, Al-Haq released the interactive map “Erasure in Motion: Israel’s Forcible Displacement of West Bank Bedouin Communities”. The NGO documented the systematic forcible displacement of over 46 Bedouin communities in the occupied West Bank by Israeli occupying authorities and settlers. The NGO’s investigation revealed that most of the communities displaced since October 2023 were in the vicinity of a significant infrastructure development, a proposed Israeli 400 kV electricity transmission line.
• On 30 March, Hamoked and Gisha published a press release informing that the Israeli High Court had rejected a petition, submitted by several organizations, requesting the Israeli military to allow the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza’s civilian population. The NGOs stressed that the Court had issued this ruling as the State of Israel was completely blocking the passage of humanitarian aid, including food, water, and medicine to Gaza.

Africa, Asia and Europe

• On 1 April, Amnesty International called for an independent and impartial investigation into the circumstances in which at least 15 Palestinian medics and rescue workers, who had gone to southern Gaza for a rescue operation, were reportedly shot dead after Israeli forces opened fire on their vehicles. The NGO informed that those killed included eight Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) health workers, one UNRWA staff member, and six members of the Palestinian Civil Defense. One further PRCS paramedic remained missing. The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network published an article on this issue as well.
• On 27 March, the Palestinian Return Center published the written statement “A Generation in Peril: The Human Cost of War on Gaza’s Children After October, 7th 2023”, submitted by the NGO during the Human Rights Council Fifty-eighth session. The report stated that during the Israeli military campaign in Gaza over 14,500 children had been killed, with thousands more suffering life-altering injuries, including amputations, burns, and hearing loss.

North America

• On 1 April, the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) held the webinar “Analyzing & Shifting U.S. policy towards Israel and Palestine”. Ahmed Moor, FMEP Fellow, spoke with Josh Paul, a former State Department official, about United States’ and European policy towards Palestine and what it will take to create shifts towards Palestinian self-determination.
• On 26 March, Human Rights Watch published its oral statement to the Human Rights Council Fifty-eighth session, under agenda item 7. The NGO stated that Israeli authorities’ blocking of all aid from entering Gaza was a flagrant violation of international law, amid renewed airstrikes and a ground invasion of Gaza, which have killed hundreds of women and children. The statement further called on Governments to urgently act to prevent further mass atrocities, including by suspending arms transfers to Israel, supporting the International Criminal Court and executing its arrest warrants, and imposing targeted sanctions on officials responsible for laws-of-war violations.

United Nations

• On 3 April, the UN Palestinian Rights Committee heard briefings on the situation in the OPT by OHCHR, representatives of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, and Netta Amar Shiff, a human rights lawyer. The event also included a discussion with the Palestinian Co-Director of the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land”, Basel Adra. The meeting was livestreamed on UN Web TV. The meeting was followed by the screening of the documentary.
• On 1 April, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, condemned the attack by the Israeli army on a medical and emergency convoy on 23 March resulting in the killing of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian workers in Gaza. Mr. Türk stated that the subsequent discovery of their bodies eight days later in Rafah, buried near their clearly marked destroyed vehicles, was deeply disturbing. This raised significant questions with regard to the conduct of the Israeli army during and in the aftermath of the incident, he added. Volker Türk also warned the Security Council on 3 April of a high and increasing risk that atrocity crimes are being committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.