NGO Action News 27 March 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 26 March, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights issued the report “Severed Bodies, Shattered Souls: Women in Gaza Victims of Genocide”. The report highlights widespread cases of amputations among women during the Israeli military attacks and highlights that these injuries have not only caused bodily harm but also led to profound psychological pain, with women enduring challenging conditions amid a devastated healthcare system.

• On 24 March, Physicians for Human Rights published the position paper “Gaza’s Healthcare Collapse: The Obstruction of Medical Evacuations from Gaza”. The NGO stated that with Israel renewing its assault on Gaza and closing the Rafah crossing once again, the last remaining lifeline for the sick and critically wounded has been severed. The report called on the international community to demand the urgent opening of humanitarian corridors for medical evacuations from Gaza to the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and for an end to the war.

• On 24 March, Al-Haq published the article “Deprivation of water and destruction of water installations are tools of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people” to mark World Water Day. The NGO stated that Israel has deliberately created conditions intended to bring about the destruction of the Palestinian people, including by placing Gaza under an electricity blackout, meaning that the South Gaza Desalination Plant could only provide about 2,500 m3 of water per day, instead of 18,000, putting at risk the lives of 600,000 Palestinians. Furthermore, Israel prevented the construction of sewage treatment plants in Gaza, blocking the entry of materials needed to build and operate them.

• On 24 March, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights published an article on the deaths of two journalists killed in two different Israeli airstrikes on the same day. The NGO stated that Israeli forces continued to target journalists to kill the eyewitnesses to the crime of genocide, informing that the number of journalists killed by Israeli forces since 7 October 2023 had risen to 208. The Institute for Palestine Studies published an article on this issue as well.

• On 17 March, ACRI informed that it had filed a petition with the Israeli Supreme Court on behalf of six Palestinian residents of Hebron, demanding that travel restrictions affecting them be removed. The NGO informed that since the beginning of the war, major movement restrictions have been imposed on Palestinian residents of Hebron. Palestinians in the city are under curfew, which means that all residents, including young children, the elderly, and people with disabilities, are prohibited from leaving their homes, they are not allowed to open their shops, driving in private Palestinian vehicles is not allowed and emergency and service vehicles must coordinate any movement via a lengthy and complicated process, and barbed wire fences have been arbitrarily placed within residential neighborhoods.

Africa, Asia and Europe

• On 25 March, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) published the article “Israel’s siege and new airstrikes are cutting the lifeline to Gaza”, alerting that, after Israel reimposed a total siege and resumed hostilities, people in Gaza are once again facing starvation and death. According to NRC, the humanitarian crisis has escalated rapidly with the Israeli government halting the entry of all aid into Gaza, and new airstrikes killing, injuring and displacing people. Food supplies are running out, hospitals are unable to function, and access to clean water is severely restricted.

• On 22 March, the Palestinian Return Centre delivered an intervention during the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, under Agenda Item 3: Interactive Dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. The statement focused on the grave and systematic violations faced by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention facilities. It described alarming conditions endured by approximately 10,000 Palestinian detainees, particularly since 7 October 2023. In addition, released prisoners have reported daily instances of physical and psychological torture, long-term solitary confinement, and severe violations of international norms.

• On 20 March, Diakonia published the report “Renewed hostilities in Gaza”. Following Israel’s new airstrikes in Gaza on 18 March, this update examined the legality of Israel’s conduct pursuant to its obligations under the law of occupation and the rules on the conduct of hostilities.

North America

• On 20 March, Human Rights Watch (HRW) informed that Israeli forces caused deaths and unnecessary suffering of Palestinian patients while occupying hospitals in the Gaza Strip during the current hostilities, amounting to war crimes. Witnesses at three hospitals told HRW that Israeli forces denied electricity, water, food, and medicines to patients, shot civilians; mistreated health workers, and deliberately destroyed medical facilities and equipment. In addition, forced evacuations put patients at grave risk and left desperately needed hospitals nonfunctional.

• On 20 March, the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FEMP) held the webinar “Israeli Detention and Torture of Palestinian Medical Workers: Testimonies, Patterns, and Analysis”. Peter Beinart, FMEP Fellow, spoke with Naji Abbas, Director of the Prisoners and Detainees Department for Physicians for Human Rights Israel, about Israel targeting medical workers for arrest in Gaza and detention inside of Israel, an effort that is part of the overall destruction of the infrastructure for community and life in Gaza. In Israeli detention, health care workers have been subjected to multiple methods of torture, including beatings, sexual abuse, the withholding of medical care and insufficient nutrition.

United Nations

• On 3 April, the UN Palestinian Rights Committee will hold its 422nd meeting at 10 a.m. in Conference Room 2, at UN Headquarters in New York. The meeting will include briefings on the situation in the OPT and feature excerpts from the Oscar-winning documentary
“No Other Land”, and a briefing with the Palestinian co-Director Basel Adra. The meeting will be livestreamed on UN Web TV.

• On 24 March, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Stéphane Dujarric, informed that the Secretary-General had taken the difficult decision to reduce the Organization’s footprint in Gaza, even as humanitarian needs soared and concern over the protection of civilians intensified. This decision was taken after Israel carried out devastating strikes on Gaza, claiming the lives of hundreds of civilians, including United Nations personnel, with no humanitarian aid being allowed to enter the Strip since early March.

• On 21 March, UNSCO briefed the Security Council on the thirty-third report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of Security Council resolution 2334 (2016), covering the period from 7 December 2024 to 13 March 2025. During the reporting period, Israeli planning authorities advanced or approved approximately 10,600 housing units in settlements in the occupied West Bank, including 4,920 in East Jerusalem. The report further informed that demolitions and seizures of Palestinian-owned structures accelerated across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Citing the lack of Israeli-issued building permits, which are almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain, Israeli authorities demolished, seized, sealed or forced people to demolish 460 structures, displacing 576 persons, including 287 children and 149 women.