NGO Action News – 09 October 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 8 October, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights published the article “Women’s Tragedy Renewed with Each Forced Displacement in Gaza Strip”. According to the NGO, the Gaza Strip’s population is enduring the harshest and most brutal forms of forced displacement after the Israeli forces ordered residents of northern Gaza to move south in various military orders. The article reads that, during their arduous displacement journeys, women endured severe hardships, carrying on the few belongings that might help them survive, being forced to confront daily struggles to care for their children and meet their basic needs in an overwhelming reality of suffering. The NGO stressed that this has resulted in long-term psychological harm, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, in addition to a persistent sense of low self-worth, insecurity, and hopelessness about the future.
• On 8 October, BADIL issued a press release criticizing the 20-point plan, presented by United States President Trump to end the war in Gaza, as a pathway to consolidating the Israeli regime’s colonial control over the Strip and beyond. According to the NGO, statements by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu have altered the framework of this plan, following claims that Israeli forces would oversee the demilitarization process, and control future security arrangements, positioning himself as the authority to monitor, judge and facilitate its enforcement. Therefore, BADIL considers that this plan lacked legality, international legitimacy, neutrality, accountability and any guarantee of ending, what the NGO considers to be, a genocide.
• On 7 October, Al Haq, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and Al Mezan issued a press release stating that Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have been subjected to war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide for more than 730 days. The article reads that these mass atrocities have caused immeasurable suffering and are decimating Palestinian life, culture, and society, while starved Palestinians were being relentlessly bombarded and buried under the rubble. Palestinians are also being forced into increasingly limited and overcrowded areas. The NGOs called on Third States to take immediate and concrete measures to end, what they consider to be, Israel’s ongoing genocide.
• On 5 October, Ir Amim published a report highlighting how the Jewish high holiday season marks every year a peak period for activists who intensify efforts to overturn the status quo on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount in Jerusalem and assert Israeli control over the holy site. While Israeli measures over the years have gradually eroded the status quo, it is now facing an unprecedented collapse, the NGO wrote. This paper highlights the critical developments that have precipitated the dismantling of the long-standing arrangements and provides concrete policy recommendations to help restore and safeguard the status quo.

Africa, Asia and Europe

• On 7 October, the Palestinian Return Centre issued a press release calling for accountability of Israeli perpetrators for the crimes committed in Gaza in the last two years. The NGO stated that what Gaza has endured over the past two years was a genocide, adding that Israel has turned Gaza into an uninhabitable place, in a systematic and deliberate attempt to erase the Palestinian people from their land. The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, Diakonia, and Agence Média Palestine (in French), among others, also published articles on this issue.
• On 3 October, Amnesty International published the article “Catastrophic wave of mass displacement under inhumane conditions as Israel obliterates Gaza City”. The NGO stated that the intensification of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza City since mid-August has unleashed a new catastrophic phase of mass forced displacement, forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, many of whom have already been uprooted multiple times, into overcrowded enclaves in the south of the occupied Gaza Strip that lacked access to clean water, food, medical care, shelter and life-sustaining infrastructure.

North America

• On 6 October, Human Rights Watch published a news release stating that United States President Trump’s “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict” was no substitute for the urgent action governments needed to take to protect civilians and support justice after two years of grave abuses. The NGO added that governments should be taking immediate measures, including arms embargoes, targeted sanctions, and support for the International Criminal Court, in accordance with their international legal obligations to prevent and stop violations by the parties. The NGO also published an article on a related topic on 2 October, stating that the respect for Palestinians’ basic rights was not dependent on reaching agreement on a peace plan.
• On 29 September, the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) published the webinar
  “On the new 20-Point-Plan, Recognition of Palestinian Statehood, and Popular Pressure to End the Genocide”. Hilary Rantisi, FMEP Fellow, spoke with analyst Mouin Rabbani about U.S. President Trump’s plan, asking about actual provisions to limit Israel’s genocidal behavior and noting the colonial structure of the internationally-headed “Board of Peace” that would rule Gaza according to the proposal. They also discussed the symbolic measure of many countries recognizing Palestinian statehood at the United Nations in September.

United Nations

• On 7 October, the Chair of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, H.E. Mr. Coly Seck (Senegal), issued a statement condemning the deadly attacks of 7 October 2023, and called the scale of Israel’s reprisals, devastating civilian life through bombardment, starvation and displacement, as being manifestly disproportionate. He urged the protection of civilians, release of all remaining hostages and Palestinian detainees, safe humanitarian access, and full respect for international law.
• On 3 October, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher stated that President Trump’s Gaza initiative offered a chance for Palestinians to receive life-saving aid at the scale urgently needed, as 170,000 metric tons of food, medicine, shelter and other desperately needed supplies were ready to enter Gaza from across the region. Tom Fletcher added that the UN and its partners had the people, the trust and the experience to deliver aid to civilians, through the safest and most direct routes, and in a principled and neutral way.