NGO Action News 20 March 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

• Many organisations published articles on the devastating impact of new Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. On 18 March, Al-Haq urged the international community to urgently intervene to stop Israel after the recent attack that had reportedly killed over 400 Palestinians. Al Mezan, Gisha, the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Palestinian Return Centre, the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, and J Street, among other organisations, published articles and statements on this issue as well.
• On 18 March, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights published the article “Trapped without Treatment: Silent Death Awaits Thousands of Patients and Wounded Amid Weak Emergency Evacuations for Treatment Abroad”. The NGO sent an urgent appeal to protect and save the lives of thousands of patients and wounded in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing catastrophic conditions in the remaining hospitals and healthcare centres, as well as the weak and slow mechanisms for their evacuation for treatment abroad. The NGO also condemned the exploitation of patients’ treatment as a bargaining chip as part of the Israeli collective punishment policy, which violates international humanitarian law and constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
• On 16 March, Addameer published the article “Harsh conditions and systematic abuse of prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons… Ramlah Prison Clinic, Megiddo Prison, Damon Prison”. The NGO stated that, for more than 17 months, Israeli occupation authorities had continued their campaigns of abuse against Palestinian prisoners inside prisons and detention camps, as part of a systematic repressive policy amid the ongoing war targeting the Palestinian people.
• On 15 March, Al-Haq issued an urgent appeal raising concerns about the situation of pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza who endured brutal and inhumane conditions caused by the Israeli military assault, depriving them of the ability to care for and protect their newborn babies. The NGO estimated that 50,000 pregnant women and 20,000 newborn babies have been placed at an unimaginable risk as a result.

Africa, Asia and Europe

• On 13 March, Amnesty International published an article welcoming the report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, which had concluded that Israel has systematically used sexual, reproductive and other gender-based violence against Palestinians since October 2023 and carried out “genocidal acts” against Palestinians in Gaza by destroying women’s healthcare and reproductive health facilities. Ther NGO urged the international community to take urgent action to protect the rights of​ Palestinian​ women and address gendered crimes being committed against women and men.
• On 12 March, the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine published an article calling for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement following Israel’s renewed violations of EU’s core human rights law and humanitarian rights law. The NGO informed that the respect for those human rights had been required by the EU during the EU-Israel Association Council meeting in Brussels on 24 February.

North America

• On 21 March, The Jerusalem Fund will organize the webinar “War on Palestine: Gaza and the West Bank after the Ceasefire Collapse”. Panellists Diana Buttu, Palestinian lawyer; Abdel Razzaq Takriti, Chair in Palestinian and Arab Studies at Berkley University; and Ussama Makdisi, Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair in Arab Studies at Rice University, will discuss the renewed Israeli war on Gaza, and the ongoing siege of the West Bank, among other topics.
• On 18 March, Human Rights Watch published an article accusing the Israeli authorities of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, including forced displacement and extermination, and acts of genocide during their assault on Gaza. Following new Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, the NGO called on other countries 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.
• On 14 March, Friends of Sabeel North America published an article on the escalating situation in the occupied West Bank. The NGO informed that, as the eyes of the world have been focused on Gaza, Israeli settlers have utilized the situation to escalate their attacks on Palestinian communities.
• On 13 March, the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) published the webinar “Gaza Genocide, Disinformation, and the Death of Truth”. Lara Friedman, FMEP President, spoke with Assal Rad, scholar of Middle East history, and Marc Owen Jones, associate professor of media analytics, on the role that media and disinformation have played post-7 October 2023 in manufacturing consent for Israel’s war on Gaza.

United Nations

• On 20 March, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People convened a virtual discussion on the devastating impact of the destruction of the health system in Palestine, with a focus on its consequences for women and girls. This virtual event, held on the margins of the Commission on the Status of Women, shed light on Gaza’s ongoing health emergency and the broader humanitarian crisis. Tlaleng Mofokeng, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Mimi Syed, an emergency medicine physician in Gaza, and Adlah Sukkar, a pulmonary disease care physician, briefed participants and shared their reflections on the situation in Gaza.
• On 18 March, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Muhannad Hadi briefed the Security Council on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, expressing distress that, in addition to the intense airstrikes that have resumed, since 2 March, Israeli authorities have cut off the entry of all lifesaving supplies for 2.1 million people. Mr. Hadi warned that the total blockade of life-saving aid, basic commodities and commercial goods will have a disastrous impact on the people of Gaza who remain dependent on a steady flow of assistance into the Strip.
• On 18 March, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 Francesca Albanese expressed her deep concerns that Palestinians could be facing serious risk of mass ethnic cleansing as Israel advances its long-held plan to take Palestinian lands and evacuate Palestinians. The Special Rapporteur added that, beyond the catastrophic situation in Gaza, the occupied West Bank faced its worst military assault since the second intifada, marked by air strikes, the use of armoured bulldozers and controlled demolitions.