NGO Action News – 03 July 2025

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 1 July, Adalah, Gisha, HaMoked, Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel informed that they had sent a letter to Israeli authorities demanding the immediate entry of fuel into the Gaza Strip in quantities sufficient to meet the needs of the civilian population. They also called for access to and safe distribution of existing fuel reserves inside the Strip. The NGOs stated that denying fuel access constituted collective punishment and may amount to a war crime and a crime against humanity.
• On 1 July, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights published a press release to condemn what it considers to be ongoing atrocities committed by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. The NGO stated that these actions revealed a consistent and systematic pattern of forced displacement, mass killings, and the largescale destruction of entire cities and neighborhoods, all parts of a systematic plan aimed at forcibly confining the population to only two areas within the Gaza Strip.
• On 30 June, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies published the article “Israel’s ultimatum to Gaza: Death by starvation or live fire”, stating that since non-UN aid distribution sites in militarized zones began operations on 27 May, people approaching these sites or waiting for aid have been repeatedly targeted with gunfire and shelling. The majority of these attacks occurred near distribution sites administered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the NGO added, with more than 550 aid-seekers killed while at least 4,000 were injured since the Foundation began operations.
• On 26 June, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights published an article to warn of the imminent collapse of the remaining vital facilities operating in the Gaza Strip, particularly the healthcare services as well as water and sanitation infrastructure. According to the NGO, this came amid the systematic destruction of the essential infrastructure, including the energy and electricity sectors, and the tightening of the siege on the Strip. The repercussions of this systematic destruction have had catastrophic impacts on all aspects of life, the article reads, severely disrupting the core functions of vital sectors, which are on the brink of complete collapse, such as healthcare, relief, municipal, telecommunications, and education.
• On 25 June, BADIL reported on its participation in a side-event parallel to the 59th session of the Human Rights Council, convened by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, held at the Global Center for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion in Geneva. According to the NGO, the event gathered frontline doctors, health workers, and human rights advocates to examine the catastrophic impact of deliberate Israeli destruction of the Palestinian health system.

Africa, Asia and Europe

• On 2 July, the Independent Commission for Human Rights – Palestine, Law for Palestine and Human Rights Watch organized the panel discussion “Economic Responsibilities of Third States in light of the ICJ Advisory Opinion and the Genocide Convention”, with the participation of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese. According to the organizers, this side event to the 59th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva took place in light of the coming report by the UN Special Rapporteur, which focuses on private actors’ complicity in the commission of international crimes connected to Israel’s unlawful occupation. Building on this report, the event discussed how Third States and corporate actors bore legal responsibility not only through direct complicity but also through their failure to regulate, prevent, and cease economic engagement with illegal conduct.
• On 1 July, Amnesty International and the Norwegian Refugee Council published a statement signed by over one hundred NGOs operating in Gaza, calling for immediate action to end what they consider to be the deadly Israeli distribution scheme in Gaza, revert to the existing UN-led coordination mechanisms, and lift the Israeli government’s blockade on aid and commercial supplies. The statement reads that 400 aid distribution points operating during the temporary ceasefire across Gaza have now been replaced by just four military-controlled distribution sites, forcing two million people into overcrowded, militarized zones where they face daily gunfire and mass casualties while trying to access food and are denied other life-saving supplies.

North America

• On 1 July, Human Rights Watch, Churches for Middle East Peace and other civil society organizations published a statement calling for the release of what they consider to be the unlawfully detained Palestinian medical workers in Gaza and the West Bank. This includes doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals working for international humanitarian organizations. The statement reads that healthcare workers are essential personnel, but that hundreds of them have been forcibly removed from hospital wards and patient bedsides and subjected to prolonged detention in Israeli prisons and military camps, with at least
  185 healthcare workers from Gaza and the West Bank estimated to be in Israeli detention.
• On 29 June, Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) published the webinar “The Urgency of Telling Palestinian Stories”. Hilary Rantisi, FMEP Fellow, spoke with author and architect Suad Amiry and film and TV director/actor/producer Cherien Dabis. They discussed Dabis’ latest film, “All That’s Left of You”, an intergenerational story that goes back to the 1948 Nakba, and about one of Amiry’s books, “Sharon and My Mother-in-Law”, about life under Israeli occupation in the West Bank. They also discussed the role of diaspora Palestinians and relationship to the broader Palestinian collective, and the urgency of telling Palestinian stories.

United Nations

• On 9 July, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation will co-organize the 2025 Conference on the Question of Jerusalem “Palestinian Oppression and Displacement in Jerusalem in the Shadow of the War: A microcosm of the situation throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory”, in Dakar, Senegal. The event will reflect on the challenges faced by the Palestinian people in occupied East Jerusalem in terms of displacement, dispossession and violence and will provide the platform to assess the wider oppression across the OPT and for the unresolved legacy of the Nakba.
• On 30 June, Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari (DPPA) briefed the Security Council on the Situation in the Middle East, reporting on the implementation of resolution 2334.
  Khiari stated that the UN Secretary-General unequivocally condemned the widespread killing and injury of civilians in Gaza, including children and women, and the destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, and mosques. He also strongly condemned the loss of lives and injuries of Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza and called for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable. Mr. Khiari also stated that the escalating violence in the occupied West Bank was alarming as military operations by Israeli security forces in the northern West Bank have resulted in high levels of fatalities, including women and children, significant population displacement, and destruction of homes and infrastructure, particularly in refugee camps.