NGO Action News – 17 April 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.

Middle East

• On 14 April, 7amleh published the article “Meta Must End the Systematic Censorship of Palestinian Content Globally”. The NGO stated that Israeli authorities were orchestrating a mass censorship campaign in direct coordination with the social media company Meta to silence pro-Palestinian voices across the world. The article says that, according to internal data from Meta leaked by whistleblowers, Meta has complied with 94% of take-down requests issued by the Israeli government since 7 October 2023, resulting in over 90,000 immediate content removals and tens of millions of additional posts suppressed or flagged via automated systems.
• On 11 April, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights published a press release condemning the Israeli forces’ escalating policy of house demolitions, forced displacement of residents, and destruction of Palestinian facilities in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. According to the NGO, this escalation is part of Israel’s systematic policy of ethnic cleansing alongside its accelerated settlement expansion and efforts to annex the West Bank and tighten its control over it. The NGO added that there has been a significant surge in demolitions recently, targeting many Palestinian-owned houses and facilities, forcibly displacing hundreds of people, including women and children, and leaving them homeless.
• On 10 April, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights issued a press release calling on the international community to intervene and ensure the people of Gaza have access to safe drinking water. According to the NGO, Israeli forces have deliberately escalated their policies to deprive Palestinians in Gaza of the minimum amount of water needed to survive by disabling supply lines, cutting off electricity, and preventing the entry of fuel necessary to operate the remaining desalination facilities. The NGO also warned of the catastrophic consequences of the collapse of water and sanitation services, particularly for children, women, and the elderly.
• On 8 April, Al-Haq made a submission to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights, for the forthcoming thematic report on military activities and toxic substances, highlighting the impact of Israel’s campaign in Gaza on the environment. The NGO reported that, due to the inability of Palestinians to be able to effectively clear the rubble and rebuild, many families are forced to live in partially destroyed or damaged homes, leaving them at risk of prolonged exposure to pulverized building materials and heavy metal exposure from concrete rubble.
• On 6 April, Physicians for Human Rights published the report “Displaced Communities, Forgotten People”. The report described what the NGO calls the “devastating consequences of Israeli “settler terrorism”, and Israeli state policies, including the complete expulsion of 7 Palestinian shepherding communities in Area C of the West Bank, displacing over 1,000 individuals.

Africa, Asia and Europe

• On 13 April, the Palestinian Return Centre published a press release condemning the Israeli military’s latest wave of attacks targeting Al-Ahli Hospital and other healthcare facilities across the Gaza Strip, which, according to the NGO represented a grave violation of international humanitarian law and the sanctity of medical neutrality. These attacks have rendered access to emergency care nearly impossible, leaving civilians, including women, children, and the elderly without lifesaving care. Other organisations published articles on this issue as well, including the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Agence Média Palestine, Al Mezan, and Churches for Middle East Peace.
• On 11 April, the Norwegian Refugee Council published the article “They would kill us if we stayed”. The NGO stated that the Israel’s discriminatory planning regime made it nearly impossible for Palestinians in Area C of the occupied West Bank to secure building permits. As a result, Palestinian Bedouin communities often have no choice but to build without permits, leaving homes, schools and essential infrastructure at constant risk of demolition or confiscation, and settler violence. The article further reads that such Israeli policies have created a highly coercive environment in which Palestinians are left with no genuine choice but to leave. The NGO added that displacement driven by such pressure amounted to forcible transfer, which was a grave breach of international humanitarian law.
• On 9 April, Law For Palestine published a summary of four legal articles addressing the responsibilities of states and corporations under international law, particularly in the context of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The articles explore state obligations regarding vessel control and the interruption of maritime passage in cases of international crimes, the legal implications of arms and energy transfers to Israel, and the duty of Third States and corporations to prevent and punish genocide.

North America

• On 11 April, the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) published the webinar “One hour after an attack, we prepare to be attacked again: Survival in Masafer Yatta”. Ali Awad, Palestinian writer and activist, spoke about life in Masafer Yatta, in the southern West Bank, subject to what he described as ongoing and escalating state-backed Israeli settler attacks since 7 October 2023. Participants also described Israeli efforts to force Palestinians out of Masafer Yatta, their loss of any sense of security, hope, or the possibility of a future in an area they inhabited for generations.

United Nations

• On 11 April, the Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, alerted that the increasing issuance by Israeli forces of “evacuation orders”, which OHCHR considers to be in effect displacement orders, have resulted in the forcible transfer of Palestinians in Gaza into ever shrinking spaces where they have little or no access to life-saving services, including water, food and shelter, and where they continue to be subject to attacks. She added that while Israel, as an occupying power, can lawfully order the temporary evacuations of civilians in certain areas under strict conditions, the nature and scope of the evacuation orders raised serious concerns that Israel intended permanently to remove the civilian population from these areas in order to create a “buffer zone”.
• On 11 April, UNFPA published the article “Between siege and survival: The unheard struggles of mothers in the West Bank”. The article reads that the World Health Organization has reported more than 720 attacks on health facilities in the West Bank since October 2023. These attacks, together with movement restrictions and checkpoint closures, can cause life-threatening delays for some 73,000 pregnant women and endanger the lives of newborns. UNFPA added that since the start of 2025, over 40,000 people have been displaced in the West Bank, mostly from refugee camps. Consequently, access to essential services, including healthcare, has become increasingly scarce.