Executive Summary

The ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip has compounded several humanitarian and legal violations, particularly inrelation to the reproductive rights of Palestinian women. Since the launch of its military offensive in October 2023, Israelhas systematically targeted Palestinian women in ways that undermine their ability to survive, give birth, and raisechildren. More than 12,300 women have been killed, 4,700 women and children are missing, and approximately 800,000women have been forcibly displaced. An estimated one million women and girls now suffer from acute food insecurity.Israel’s actions constitute a deliberate attempt to impair the reproductive capacities of Palestinian women, aimed atdismantling the future of Palestinian society. Through the bombing of shelters, destruction of hospitals, blockading ofmedical and hygiene supplies, and attacks on fertility clinics and maternity wards, Israel’s policy of erasure is notincidental, it is intentional.

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Executive Summary

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is vital inproviding humanitarian aid, education, and health services to Palestinian refugees across Jordan, Lebanon,Syria, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Beyond its humanitarian role, UNRWA represents aninternational commitment to Palestinian refugees' right of return, as established in UN General AssemblyResolution 194 in 1948. However, Israel has long sought to undermine the agency through financial, political,and military means.Recent Israeli actions have escalated, with the Israeli Knesset passing legislation banning UNRWAoperations in areas under Israeli control, effectively revoking its legal status. Concurrently, Israel hasintensified military attacks on UNRWA facilities. In the Gaza Strip since October 2023, Israeli forces havetargeted 310 UNRWA sites, destroying schools and killing 273 UNRWA employees alongside hundreds ofcivilians sheltering in its facilities. Throughout the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military has been turningUNRWA facilities into military bases and detention centers, and has closed UNRWA’s headquarters in EastJerusalem. These actions violate multiple international legal agreements and aim to erase Palestinian refugeeidentity and their legal rights.

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The shocking human cost that occupation has taken on Palestinian women is laid bare in research published today. Combining research, extensive surveys, and first-hand testimonies from over 40 Palestinian women, Palestinian Women: The Disproportionate Impact of The Israeli Occupation provides new insight into the gendered experience of occupation, looking into four issues in particular:

• women refugees
• the impact of residency revocation on Palestinian women in Jerusalem
• the experience of women prisoners
• Gazans’ access to health

Co-authored by four Palestinian NGOs – the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD), the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC), and Women Media and Development (TAM), the report includes detailed findings that demonstrate how the oppression occupation has permeated women’s daily lives, and the particular impact is has had on women in Palestinian refugee camps, Palestinian women living in Jerusalem, women prisoners, and residents of Gaza who require health services.

The impact on refugee women

Researchers spoke to 500 Palestinian refugee women from 12 Palestinian camps (7 in the West Bank, 5 in Gaza). Their findings included the following:

• A third of women surveyed had been directly exposed to physical assault by Israeli Occupation Forces. 9% had been exposed to threats of being attacked by police dogs during Israeli night raids on their homes.
• Over a third (37%) of respondents had been exposed to detention or interrogation, while 38% said that they or members of their households had been exposed to verbal abuse during Israeli army raids, at checkpoints or while visiting religious places.
• Nearly a quarter (24%) were forced to live in shelters or with extended family. 22% were forced to live under unhealthy conditions. 13% stated that the female and male members of their families were separated as a result of having to live in shelters.
• More than one in five (21%) had been exposed to beatings or tear gas at Israeli checkpoints while they were pregnant. 4% reported that they aborted or gave birth at Israeli checkpoints.
• The majority (64%- 321 cases) had been unable to visit religious or recreational places because of Occupation restrictions.

Jerusalem: Residency Revocation and Family Reunification

According to official figures, 14,595 Palestinians from East Jerusalem had their residency status revoked between 1967 and the end of 2016.

Through residency revocations, Israel has separated husbands from wives, parents from children, and extended families from one another, causing traumatic complications for women attempting to remain with their families in both Jerusalem and the West Bank.

This leads to traumatic fears of separation from children for mothers and an entrenching of patriarchal practices across society. Palestinian women living in Jerusalem lose residency rights if they get divorced or their husbands remarry. Limiting their access to justice, female victims of domestic violence fear reporting abuse to authorities in case they are forcibly transferred away from their children.

Women prisoners

Since the beginning of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine in 1967, approximately 10,000 Palestinian women have been arrested and detained by Israeli military forces. According to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs’ 2017 annual report, 1,467 children were arrested last year.

Our researchers spoke to prisoners who experienced physical and psychological torture at arrest and imprisonment, and traumatic, gendered treatment, including:

• Women denied access to menstrual products while detained
• A woman arrested while pregnant who gave birth while chained to a prison hospital bed
• Ex-prisoners who report being subjected to rape and death threats during interrogation, including a girl in of 15-years old threatened with rape
• Women who were subjected to frequent forced and violent strip searches
• A prisoner who reported toothache, only to have the wrong tooth removed

Access to Health in Gaza

Israel exercises strict control Gaza’s borders, a policy of ‘actual authority’, constituting continued occupation, despite the withdrawal of its permanent presence. This control in particular affects those who need medical treatment outside of Gaza’s struggling health system, who require permission to leave. The report shows that the rate of approval applications is falling year-by-year:

• 92.5% of applications were successful in 2012
• 88.7% in 2013
• 82.4% in 2014
• 77.5% in 2015
• 62.1% in 2016

Of the 26,282 permit applications submitted by patients aiming to exit through Erez in 2016, 8,242 (31.4%) were delayed. Many applicants received no response from border authorities, even after lawyers filed formal applications on their behalf. These delays regularly extend months and years beyond medical appointments, worsening already life-threatening diseases and in some cases resulting in death.

Read the full report here, or download it here:

Palestinian Women – The Disproportionate Impact of the Israeli Occupation

The Program of the 13th Government is founded on the belief that hard work, coupled with faith in our ability to create new realities on the ground, will clear our path to freedom. Through our strength of will and building on the foundations of our achievements we can end the occupation and establish the independent and sovereign State of Palestine – a State in which all citizens will enjoy freedom, justice and equality in a democratic political system based on the principles of pluralism, separation of powers, peaceful transfer of power and respect for human rights.

In August 2009, the Government published its program to end the occupation and establish the State of Palestine on the June 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Inspired by the Palestinian national movement and the sacrifices of Palestinian men and women, the Government is working to help realize the collective and individual aspiration of the Palestinian people to live in freedom, dignity and independence. On the path to freedom, as we strive to make Palestine a reality, the Declaration of Independence is our compass, and we are bound by the Basic Law, the resolutions of the Palestinian National Council, and the political platform and commitments of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The Government program therefore complements the PLO’s endeavors at the regional and international levels. It aims to complete the process of institution-building throughout the homeland and support peaceful popular resistance against the occupation. The effort to consolidate state institutions, founded on the principles of integrity, transparency, separation of powers and provision of safety and security to citizens, thereby preserving the national interest and safeguarding the rule of law, cannot wait until the occupation ends. Indeed, we need stronger institutions both to expedite the end of the occupation and to secure the long-term future of a unified and democratic State of Palestine.

Inspired by the conviction that destiny must yield to the will of the people, the Government recognizes it requires the endorsement and support of the Palestinian people. Each and every citizen, man and woman, young and old, will continue to play a part in building a free Palestine. The Government will continue to support citizens’ steadfastness and perseverance on their homeland by working to improve their quality of life, responding proactively to their social and economic needs. This commitment applies to the entire homeland on the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, without distinction on the grounds of the untenable divisions between the so-called ‘Area A’, ‘Area B’ and ‘Area C’. This is a single political and geographic entity and the sovereign territory of the State of Palestine.

The Government will continue its work to promote the unification of the homeland and eliminate the phenomenon of political, economic and social fragmentation that undermines the national interest. The Government also reaffirms its determination to work constructively towards bringing an end to the siege imposed on Gaza. The Government does not, and will not, discriminate between any part of the homeland in working to ensure that citizens are empowered to remain steadfast in upholding their rights, wherever they reside. In particular, the Government will redouble its effort to respond to essential and pressing needs in East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

Achievements in the first year of the Government program

As we enter the second year of the Government program, there have already been many achievements. Development programs and projects are being implemented, bringing tangible improvements to the daily lives of citizens and real hope for a better future. These improvements are, however, mostly confined to areas of the West Bank. We are committed to ensuring that citizens in Gaza and East Jerusalem are able to enjoy the benefits of economic and social development and this will be a high priority as we move forward over the coming year.

Over the last 12 months, Government institutions have been renewed with a spirit of responsibility and commitment to good governance. Transparency of, and accountability for, public expenditure have increased, and we are making progress towards reducing reliance on external aid. We have also continued to restructure and reorganize government institutions to increase their efficiency and effectiveness in performing their assigned duties.

• Substantial progress in upgrading public infrastructure: we are constructing and renovating educational institutions, health care establishments, roads, water and electricity networks, and facilities to collect and process wastewater and solid waste.
• Increased public safety and security: we have worked to consolidate the rule of law and foster a more law-abiding culture by strengthening justice and security sector services, and through a range of public outreach activities.
• Improved access to justice: we have worked together with the High Judicial Council to enhance the operation of the courts system, and the public prosecution service has been strengthened, resulting in a significant improvement in the timeliness of court case adjudication.
• Strengthening of the national economy: a national campaign has been launched to put an end to the sale of Israeli settlement products, and industrial estates are being constructed and rehabilitated.
• Better social services: a greater proportion of the national budget has been allocated to the provision of education, health and social protection services. The social safety net has been rationalized to ensure that it addresses the needs of the poor and vulnerable.

These achievements are being made in closer partnership with citizens and their communities. As part of the Government’s endeavor to empower citizens throughout the Palestinian territory and bring real improvements to their quality of life, more than 1,000 community-based projects have been implemented to support locally-driven development initiatives. Furthermore, strenuous efforts have been made to support citizens’ continued perseverance in East Jerusalem and empower them in the face of Israeli settlement activity, home demolitions and evictions.

The second year of the Government program

Despite these successes, we cannot rest: much work remains to be done in the second year of the Government program to build on the achievements of the first. The Government will spare no effort in strengthening the institutional framework of the State of Palestine in order to better serve the national interest. We will continue to work in all sectors to improve institutional performance, public service delivery, quality of life and economic prosperity.

As we move forward, we are seeking to establish a model of good governance which will earn the trust and confidence of citizens and ensure that all society works together to build Palestine. The legitimacy of Government depends on its capacity to deliver equitable social and economic development to the people and equal opportunities for all. In turn, ensuring equity and equality depends on the Government’s ability to provide a safe and secure environment for all and, as such, the Government reaffirms its full commitment to bear its responsibilities in the area of public safety and security, whilst respecting citizens’ rights, including the right to privacy and freedom of expression.

• We will support the strengthening of the justice system by assisting the development of human resources and the establishment of specialized courts.
• We will build a penal system that unfailingly respects human rights and transforms prisons into centers for the correction, rehabilitation and reintegration into society of offenders.
• We will upgrade the capacity of law enforcement agencies to fulfill their responsibilities under the law whilst respecting and safeguarding citizens’ rights.
• We will actively encourage civil society organizations to monitor and publicly report on the performance of public institutions in relation to human rights.

The Government takes seriously its responsibility to continuously improve the performance, transparency and accountability of the public sector through reforms aimed at tackling waste, inefficiency and corrupt practices.

• We will implement administrative reforms to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the public sector, as well as to eliminate favoritism and nepotism. We will work to reform laws, regulations and codes governing civil service employment, salaries and pensions.
• We will implement a package of initiatives to eliminate bureaucratic inefficiency and delays in the provision of services in relation to the administration of civil and commercial affairs, including land registration and commerce and trade certification.
• We will fortify efforts to tackle corruption and adhere to relevant international conventions by strengthening investigation and enforcement bodies, and encouraging greater civil society engagement in the fight against corruption.

The coming year will also witness a deepening of the Government’s efforts to improve the range and quality of basic services for citizens of all ages.

• We will proceed with modernization of the education system, in line with a strategic national vision to prepare future generations with the knowledge, expertise and skills to drive progress and prosperity in Palestine.
• We will extend health insurance coverage and promote quality improvements in health care services, including greater specialization such that Palestinians can receive treatment for all ailments in their home country.
• We will promote arts and culture in Palestine, encouraging individual creativity and innovation as well as collective engagement in cultural activity and pursuits.
• We will develop better infrastructure, equipment and programs to enable our youth to participate in organized social and sporting activities.
• We will continue to pursue policies that empower women in Palestine and ensure their full contribution to the endeavor to build the state. We take seriously our obligation to promote gender equality in all aspects of public and private life, and we encourage civil society organizations to continue to hold government accountable on gender equality issues.

Our work to enable private sector growth, including an extensive program of legal, regulatory and administrative reform, will continue as part of the effort to achieve greater economic self-reliance.

• We will focus on initiatives to promote growth and exports in the agriculture and tourism sectors, whilst engaging in longer-term efforts to build the productive base of the national economy in strategic industrial and service sectors.
• We will work to build closer ties with international trade bodies, markets and businesses in order to increase exports and strengthen Palestinian businesses.
• We will continue to explore and take advantage of opportunities for partnership between the public and private sectors, whilst protecting national resources and citizens from exploitative practices. The Anti-Corruption Agency, consumer protection associations and professional unions will all play a vital role in safeguarding the national interest.

Valuing most highly their support in implementing its program, the Government calls upon all citizens to engage in and support this effort to end the occupation and establish the State of Palestine. In the second and final year of the program, a concerted effort from all sectors of our society is needed to complete the translation of this vision into reality. In addition, we are determined to continue to support the Palestine Liberation Organization’s effort to consolidate official and popular Arab and international backing for the endeavor to establish the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, in which our people can live in freedom and in dignity on the entire territory occupied since 1967.

In submitting this document, the Government hopes to demonstrate its absolute commitment to completing the journey towards ending the occupation and establishing the state. We also aim to convey our sincere belief that the people of Palestine, men and women, young and old, are the main source of inspiration and strength on the path to our freedom. Our human capital is our most precious resource as we move forward to establish the State of Palestine. The Palestinian people have battled for survival on their homeland for many decades in the face of sustained attempts to crush their sense of national identity and destroy the very fabric of their society. In remaining steadfast in their determination, the Palestinian people have confounded the expectations of those who have bet on their failure to persevere in the face of adversity: our spirit has not been broken and we will never succumb to defeatism.

We must preserve our self-assuredness and confidence in our capacity to realize the vision of the Government program. Our work and our faith in ourselves, and our aspiration for a better future, are the keys to success in securing our freedom and independence on our homeland. Building on the achievements of the previous year, and energized by both the faith that we will succeed, and inspired by an unyielding will to achieve success, the Government hereby confirms its determination to meet the commitments presented in this document during the second and final year of its program.

Salam Fayyad
Prime Minister

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Foreword

This document presents the program of the 13th government of the Palestinian National Authority. The program, which sets out our national goals and government policies, centers around the objective of building strong state institutions capable of providing, equitably and effectively, for the needs of our citizens, despite the occupation. We believe that full commitment to this state-building endeavor will advance our highest national priority of ending the occupation, thereby enabling us to live in freedom and dignity in a country of our own.

It is time for our people to obtain their unconditional freedom and national rights as required by international law. This calls for positive and proactive steps, both nationally and internationally, in order to end the occupation and reach a just and lasting political settlement in our region. For our part, we have to dedicate ourselves to the task of state-building. This will be critical to our success. In parallel, we have to be fully engaged with the international community, and we should work to secure the full backing of our Arab brethren and the political and economic support of our friends around the world.

The establishment of an independent, sovereign, and viable Palestinian state is fundamental for peace, security and stability in our region. Whereas Israeli settlement policies and activities continue to undermine the viability of the two- state solution, our government is determined to preserve and advance this solution concept through our full commitment to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) program. We call on our people to unite behind this program and the government’s vision to transform it into a reality. This is the path to freedom. This is the path to the creation of the independent state of Palestine on the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital. And, yes, this can and must happen within the next two years.

The work of our government will be guided by international law and the precepts of good governance, as we work to ensure the fulfillment of our commitments toward our citizens and our partners in the international community. Despite the occupation practices, which have severely hampered our progress, we have demonstrated in recent years the will and capacity to build toward statehood. This government is fully committed to building on the accomplishments of the previous governments, and it will work to further develop effective institutions of government based on the principles of good governance, accountability and transparency.

The determination of our people to end the occupation and establish our independent state underpins our confidence in their support for the goals and policies outlined in this document. It is through the support of our people that we will succeed in our mission. Through their commitment to the PLO program- the program of self-determination, the right of return and the establishment of an independent state- combined with the sense of accomplishment and self-empowerment that has started to emerge as a direct consequence of the success of the national stabilization effort over the past two years, we are confident that the Palestinian people will fulfill their national aspirations, provided, of course, that we also succeed in restoring the unity of our homeland and institutions.

The establishment of a Palestinian state requires collective dedication to this national goal, which is shared by the various political and social organizations, academic and cultural institutions, non-government organizations, local government councils, the private sector, the land-protection and anti- settlements and anti-Wall committees, and the national organizations of women and youth. Therefore, this government’s program seeks to involve all sectors and segments of society in the national drive to develop and advance our institutions. We take fully into account that our people expect a government that provides them with security and basic services and fosters development in all spheres, while respecting their rights and liberties. We believe that building and sustaining effective institutions can only be accomplished through full partnership between the government and the citizens.

The present document sets out our national goals and the priorities and activities of the PNA institutions for the next two years. Moreover, the 13th government will do everything in its power to ensure that general elections will be held on their constitutionally mandated date in January of next year, in accordance with the law and highest international standards. This is a right of all citizens, and it is a constitutional requirement that should not be overlooked.

We look forward to continued regional and international support to establish Palestine as an independent, democratic, progressive, and modern Arab state, with full sovereignty over its territory in the West Bank and Gaza, on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Palestine will be a peace-loving state that rejects violence, commits to co-existence with its neighbors, and builds bridges of cooperation with the international community. It will be a symbol of peace, tolerance and prosperity in this troubled area of the world. By embodying all of these values, Palestine will be a source of pride to all of its citizens, and an anchor for stability in this region.

Salam Fayyad
Prime Minister

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The Palestinian Authority condemns this morning’s US convoy explosion in the Occupied Gaza Strip and offers its condolences to the explosion’s victims, their families, the American administration and the American people.

“The Palestinian Authority condemns this morning’s explosion in Occupied Gaza in the strongest possible terms. Our condolences go to the victims, their families, the American administration and the American people,” said Dr. Saeb Erekat, Chief Palestinian Negotiator, who continued “The explosion was against the peace process and against Palestinian national interests.”

Dr. Erekat said that the Palestinian Authority is prepared to conduct a joint investigation into the explosion with US counterparts and stressed that the convoy was in Gaza at the request of the Palestinian Authority to help implement the Road Map.

Initial reports indicate the explosion took the lives of up to four convoy members. No group has taken responsibility for the roadside bomb and it remains unclear whether the US convoy was the intended target.