Executive Summary

On February 15, the government of Israel approved a process to register land in the occupied West Bank as Israeli “state property.” The decision builds on a cabinet resolution introduced in May of 2025 that established the framework for renewed land settlement proceedings on Palestinian land.

Implemented for the first time since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in 1967, this process enables Israeli authorities to declare land ‘state property’ when Palestinian ownership cannot be formally proven; a standard difficult for many Palestinians to meet. Even when landownership can be met, expropriative policies such as the Absentee Property Law allows Israel to confiscate Palestinian property and sell it to Israelis. A total of NIS 244.1 million has been allocated for this program, which has been stated to continue for decades. Israeli Government Resolution No. 3559 sets a first-phase objective of registering 15% of previously unregulated land within five years. [1]

This development follows the Israeli cabinet’s February 8th approval of a series of measures that expand Israeli control over land administration and acquisition in the West Bank, undermining the Palestinian Authority (PA) and amounting to de facto annexation. The details of the measures have not been released to the public, only communicated through a press release by government ministers.

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Introduction

Palestinian women in Gaza are subjected to overlapping forms of violence by Israel that converge into a single, coherent structure of domination. Starvation, sexual and gender-based violence, and reproductive violence do not occur as isolated abuses, but as an interlocking system enacted simultaneously and reinforcing one another. These practices operate across psychological, social, and biological dimensions of harm. While Palestinian women’s bodies are the immediate site of this violence, its intended target is Palestinian society as a whole. By systematically targeting women, Israel undermines collective survival, erodes social cohesion, and attacks the continuity of Palestinian life itself. Taken together, these practices constitute a gendered architecture of genocide that must be recognized and addressed as such.

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH) has documented these three crimes throughout Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Firsthand testimonies collected from the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank reveal the distinctly gendered impacts of these violations and their cumulative effects on Palestinian women.

I. Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Sexual and gender-based violence is systematically instrumentalized by Israel as a means of humiliating and isolating Palestinian women while dismantling family and community bonds. These violations should not be understood as isolated or aberrational incidents, but rather as part of a broader historical pattern in which sexual violence has been deployed as a tool of terror and social control against the Palestinian population.

Historical records document that during the 1948 ethnic cleansing of historic Palestine, Zionist paramilitary forces including the Haganah engaged in acts of sexual violence alongside mass killings and expulsions of Palestinians. The Haganah later became the institutional foundation of the contemporary Israeli military. This historical continuity underscores how sexual violence has long functioned as a weapon of war, embedded within military practices aimed at terrorizing civilians and facilitating population displacement.

Testimonies collected by MIFTAH fieldworkers across the West Bank and Gaza Strip reveal recurring patterns. Arrests conducted in family homes routinely transform domestic spaces into sites of domination. Soldiers storm houses, often in the middle of the night, restrain family members, destroy personal belongings, steal valuables, and dictate all movement within the home. Male relatives are frequently forced to witness or participate in the abuse of female family members, a tactic designed to emasculate men and dismantle the household from within.

Sexual violence also functions as a form of psychological torture in Israeli detention and interrogation settings. Alongside sleep deprivation, starvation, and physical assault, sexual violence is deliberately employed to induce psychological breakdown and assert total control. Testimonies describe forced strip searches, removal of hijabs, invasive bodily touching, slut-shaming, and explicit threats of rape against detainees or their relatives . Testimonies collected by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) describe in detail the systematic use of secual torture in Israeil detention settings. Sexual violence is further enacted through blackmail, including the use of nude or indecent photographs taken during interrogation to coerce compliance or enforce silence. These practices aim to strip women of dignity, break them psychologically prior to or during interrogation, and inflict lasting harm that weakens their sense of self long after release.

The full extent of sexual violence against Palestinian women today remains difficult to quantify, as survivors rarely disclose sexual assault or rape causing underreporting to be widespread. This silence reflects structural, legal, and social barriers rather than the absence of abuse. Palestinian survivors of violence perpetrated by Israeli soldiers or settlers seldom pursue legal avenues due to the well-documented lack of accountability within Israeli law enforcement mechanisms, where investigations rarely result in prosecution or redress .

Social stigma also plays a role in silencing survivors. In a predominantly conservative social context, sexual violence carries stigma that extends beyond the survivor to her family and community. Israeli forces exploit this reality deliberately, using sexual violence and threats to women’s “honor” as mechanisms of coercion, intimidation, and social fragmentation. In this way, sexual violence operates not only as an assault on individual women, but as a strategic instrument of collective harm.

II. Reproductive Violence

Reproductive violence targets women’s capacity to give life through the systematic destruction of healthcare systems, maternity services, and the material conditions necessary for survival. It refers to deliberate actions intended to impair an entire population’s ability to reproduce and sustain itself. In Gaza, reproductive violence is not incidental to armed conflict; it is enacted through policy-driven destruction that reflects intentionality rather than collateral harm.

This violence is carried out through the systematic targeting of life-sustaining infrastructure, including hospitals, maternity wards, neonatal units, fertility clinics, and embryo preservation centers, as well as the blockade of medicines, medical equipment, and hygiene supplies. The consequences are visible in rising maternal mortality, increased miscarriages linked to malnutrition and extreme stress, untreated reproductive infections, and the repeated displacement of pregnant women seeking care within a collapsing healthcare system .

These measures directly undermine women’s ability to safely conceive, carry pregnancies to term, give birth, and raise children. Women’s reproductive health is further compromised by the deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid and the collapse of sanitation and water infrastructure. The destruction of healthcare facilities, combined with ongoing bombardment and repeated displacement, has rendered movement dangerous and unpredictable, making access to medical care nearly impossible and severely limiting the ability of humanitarian organizations to provide reproductive and maternal health services.

As a result, there has been a sharp increase in preventable reproductive health complications. Women report rising cases of fever linked to untreated vaginal infections caused by inadequate hygiene and the absence of feminine hygiene products, as well as unnecessary hysterectomies . Women using intrauterine devices experience prolonged bleeding and infections due to unsanitary living conditions, yet no options for safe removal currently exist in Gaza, posing serious long-term risks to reproductive health and bodily integrity . Women have also been forced to undergo emergency hysterectomies to control excessive post- partum bleeding that could not be managed due to the lack of healthcare.

Reproductive violence in Gaza is therefore both biological and symbolic. It constitutes an assault on the present population and on the possibility of future generations. The objective of preventing Palestinian continuity is further evidenced by the sustained and disproportionate killing of children, who have consistently been the most targeted demographic group throughout the genocide. This killing is reinforced by an ideological framework that dehumanizes Palestinian women and children. Public statements by Israeli political and military officials have repeatedly framed the killing of women and children as militarily justified . Within this logic, women are targeted not for their actions, but for their reproductive capacity and their role in sustaining Palestinian continuity. Such rhetoric has informed and legitimized military operations in Gaza. Throughout the genocide, civilian spaces including schools, homes, and hospitals, have been deliberately targeted as a matter of state policy. These are precisely the spaces where women and children sought refuge. The systematic killing and endangerment of women and children is not a secondary effect of warfare but a central component of the broader genocidal strategy.

III. Starvation as a Weapon of Genocide

Another grave factor to the reproductive health of women in Gaza has been starvation. Prolonged malnutrition, combined with physical exhaustion, repeated displacement, and lack of healthcare infrastructure, have contributed to increased miscarriages, loss of amniotic fluid, and heightened maternal mortality . Numerous women have reported using prenatal supplements distributed by humanitarian organizations as meal substitutes for themselves or their families, or exchanging them for food and essential supplies. Breastfeeding has become increasingly difficult due to suppressed milk production associated with undernourishment, while infant formula remains largely inaccessible, placing newborns at heightened risk. Chronic stress and nutritional deprivation have also resulted in amenorrhea, fertility complications, and potential long-term reproductive harm.

For women in Gaza, starvation functions not only as a form of biological deprivation but as a structural assault on familial roles, social reproduction, and dignity. It undermines women’s capacity to fulfill caregiving responsibilities, destabilizes family life, and produces severe physical, reproductive, and psychological consequences. Women disproportionately experience the embodied impacts of hunger while simultaneously carrying the emotional labor associated with sustaining children and dependent family members.

Testimonies collected by MIFTAH from displaced women subjected to Israel’s forced starvation consistently begin with descriptions of pre-displacement life, including homes, employment, family routines, and domestic spaces. The loss of the home, particularly the kitchen, emerges as a recurrent theme, reflecting the erosion of women’s agency and identity. The destruction of homes and domestic spaces traditionally associated with women’s autonomy has contributed to a marked erosion of dignity and self-perception. Reported symptoms include anxiety, insomnia, hair loss, emotional dysregulation, and post-traumatic stress, with many women suppressing their own distress to maintain caregiving roles.

Repeated displacement has further exacerbated women’s vulnerability. Multiple forced relocations have resulted in the loss of personal possessions, kinship networks, and community-based support systems. Overcrowded shelters lack adequate privacy, sanitation, and safety, compelling women to manage childcare and food preparation under unsafe and degrading conditions. Everyday survival practices are thus shaped by constant exposure to risk and instability.

For women who serve as the primary caretakers of their families, providing for loved ones often comes at great personal risk. They are frequently reducing or skipping their own meals so that their children can eat, often continuing caregiving responsibilities despite severe physical exhaustion . In displacement, they prepare rudimentary meals using limited ingredients and improvised methods, such as cooking lentils over burning toxic materials like plastic. These practices function both as survival strategies and as efforts to maintain a sense of continuity and stability for children amid profound disruption. In these contexts, women disproportionately bear the responsibility of caring for sick, injured, or disabled family members, despite acute shortages of medical care, clean water, and shelter. Overcrowding and unsanitary conditions contribute to widespread illness, while attempts to obtain food or humanitarian assistance expose women and children to ongoing risks of injury or death.

Starvation has additionally intensified gendered pressures within households. Men’s inability to secure food or protection has been associated with increased psychological distress, thereby expanding women’s emotional and caregiving responsibilities. For women whose spouses have been killed, detained, or disappeared, starvation enforces sole provider roles under conditions that systematically undermine the possibility of survival.

Conclusion

MIFTAH has documented violations of sexual violence, reproductive violence, and starvation at various points during the genocide in Gaza. These violations, however, do not occur in isolation; they operate simultaneously, reinforcing and amplifying one another as part of a single system of control. Sexual violence isolates women from themselves and alienates them within their communities. Reproductive violence deliberately targets women because of their childbearing roles. Starvation acts as both a biological and psychological assault. Taken together, these crimes compound one another, deepening harm and undermining the survival of Palestinian women and their communities. A single woman may experience all three forms of violence, being violated in detention, displaced and denied healthcare, and later starved while unable to feed her children. Together, these crimes transform daily life into a persistent site of punishment. They attack the Palestinian female spirit, disrupt women’s societal roles, and, in doing so, fracture society across generations, making recovery increasingly difficult.

The failure to confront these violations reflects a long colonial history, in which the rhetoric of “saving women” was used to justify empire while violence against women perpetrated by colonial powers was silenced or dismissed. To resist normalization and impunity, these crimes must be recognized and addressed as mutually reinforcing acts of genocide. Understanding these violations as an interconnected system of oppression is essential to grasp their full impact on Palestinian society. These gendered crimes are not about women alone; they aim to dismantle the foundations of Palestinian life. Women are targeted not only as individuals but as mothers, community anchors, and bearers of generational continuity, while Palestinian society is systematically weakened and broken at its core.

Sources and References

Executive Summary

On 17 November 2025, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2803, establishing a new governance framework for Gaza. The resolution endorses U.S. President Donald Trump’s Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict (CPEGC) and the creation of a transitional international administration through a U.S.-led Board of Peace (BoP) and authorizes an International Stabilization Force (ISF). Rather than ensuring Palestinian sovereignty, this framework transfers control of Gaza’s civil administration, security, reconstruction, borders, and humanitarian aid to external actors, entrenching foreign oversight and further consolidating Israeli dominance over the occupied Palestinian territory.

This resolution raises grave legal and political concerns. It departs from foundational principles of international law and undermines the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination. By providing no mechanisms for accountability for Israel’s documented violations, offering no concrete safeguards for Palestinian rights, and presenting an undefined framework with no clear timeline or benchmarks, Resolution 2803 risks perpetuating systemic injustices, enabling a reconfigured form of occupation, and further entrenching the colonial-style control already in place.

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1. ISSUES FOR CHILDREN

Some of the most significant changes in the five-year conflict in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) have occurred over the last nine months. Aside from the disengagement in the Gaza Strip and withdrawal of four settlements in the northern West Bank, which has reduced the exposure of children to death and injury, there has been a continued system of closures in the West Bank which seriously affects both the economic and social fabric of the Palestinian society – including the right to education, play, health and nutrition. The number of Palestinian children in Israeli detention remains at the same level as in early 2004, with some 285 children in detention.

Children are still living with distress and continue to be vulnerable. The chronic anxiety undermines self-esteem and feelings of loss of control due to the erosion of households’ coping mechanisms adversely affect family relationships. The violence in homes and schools is an issue of increasing concern and closely linked with the surrounding pressures stemming from the external environment. Furthermore, the situation in West Bank and Gaza remains volatile. The most recent incidents in late September in and around Gaza illustrate this, and indicate how children and schools can be affected. No doubt with half of the 1.3 million residents under the age of 18 years and three quarters of all households having at least one child in school, daily events in Gaza affect children in an immediate and significant manner. More and more households are deprived of their income, isolated from basic services and cut off from their usual social support networks. As a result, several studies indicate that affected family and social relationships trigger high levels of violence in homes and schools.

HEALTH AND NUTRITION

Chronic malnutrition (stunting) in children under five has increased to almost 10 percent, with children in the Gaza strip most affected. Thus 50,000 children are malnourished. The burden of malnutrition is mostly carried by children 12-23 months old – more than 15% of them are malnourished at this critical period, making them vulnerable after the end of the infant period.

Basic equipment for maternal and new born health is lacking and families and communities are insufficiently equipped with the necessary knowledge and practices to prevent and manage the most common childhood diseases. Current practices in clinics and hospitals do not use enough cost-effective interventions for mothers and newborns, in order to increase their chances for survival and growth.

The adoption, expansion and scaling up to full implementation of an integrated strategy in managing common childhood illnesses is key to ensure the health and wellbeing of Palestinian children, including psychosocial care of the young child as an integral part.

EDUCATION

The major issue of concern is to ensure full access to education services and to guarantee that high-quality learning is provided in a child-friendly environment. Access to education continues to be challenged by restrictions of movement, in particular for the teachers. The quality of education is showing signs of decline and in the worst affected areas, the learning achievements for students are deteriorating. Few children have the opportunity to experience a child-friendly learning environment with safe spaces and opportunities for sports and recreation. In addition, children lack educational materials and schools lack good teaching aids. While the child-friendly school concept is being promoted throughout oPt, the concept is challenged in particular in confrontational areas. In these areas it is necessary to adapt the child-friendly school concept to learners’ needs and link it with psychosocial and child protection services, while ensuring outreach to local communities.

ADOLESCENTS

Adolescents have limited opportunities to play and exercise in areas safe for them. Close to half of the children in West Bank and Gaza spend very limited time on extra-curricular activities like sports or playing outdoors. Overall, young Palestinians spent their spare time at home and few girls get opportunities to interact with peers outside their homes. Violence in the lives of adolescents is on the increase – both at home and in school. There is now, more than ever, a need to create safe and friendly spaces to foster opportunities for play and exercise.

CHILD PROTECTION AND PSYCHOSOCIAL WELLBEING

Although general levels of violence have decreased in 2005, the situation in the West Bank and Gaza remained tense – even after the disengagement period. After the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the withdrawal of four settlements from the West Bank, children in Gaza are not exposed to military incursions and house demolitions as they were earlier. More than ever, children need sustained psychosocial support in order to return to normalcy. The withdrawal will inevitably give rise to new expectations for youth, which, if they are not fulfilled, might in turn increase their frustration. In a changing environment, they need new outlets and to be fully involved in the improvement of the lives of their communities.

The threat of unexploded ordinance (UXO) is on the increase and has become an issue of greater concern within the last few months. This is due to the fact that children have access to areas they previously could not reach and with the withdrawal of the settlers and IDF from Gaza and the settlements of Ganim, Kadim, Sanur and Homesh the danger to children, particularly in the surrounding areas, has increased. Between January and end June this year, three children have been killed and 16 injured by explosive remnants of war.

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Making her first visit to the occupied Palestinian territories, the British actress Vanessa Redgrave, a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), today urged countries to increase their humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians and called on the Israeli Government to ease its restrictions on the movement of UN agencies.

At a press conference in Jerusalem, Ms. Redgrave said the UN agency responsible for helping Palestinian refugees has so far received only $62 million out of the $209 million it needs to provide such services as food aid, housing, employment assistance and trauma counselling for the rest of the year.

Ms. Redgrave also appealed to Israel to ease the security restrictions it has imposed recently in the Gaza Strip so that UN agencies can distribute food more quickly to Palestinians.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has delayed its latest round of food distribution in Gaza by three weeks because of the restrictions. Some 250 containers of food remain stuck at the port of Ashdod, with another 800 containers due to arrive by the end of August.

UNRWA officials say the number of Palestinians needing food aid has soared since September 2000, the start of the latest intifada. Currently the agency can only distribute about five to six containers of food a day in Gaza, well below the target of 20 containers.

On Tuesday Ms. Redgrave cancelled a planned visit to the Gaza Strip city of Rafah - where she had hoped to meet some of the more than 15,000 people left homeless by Israel's demolition of homes - because of the security restrictions.

During her six-day trip, which ends on Saturday, Ms. Redgrave has visited the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, toured refugee camps and health clinics, launched a UNICEF measles immunization scheme and participated with the British violinist and composer Stephen Bentley in a cultural programme for Palestinians.

Ms. Redgrave has also met locals to discuss life under occupation and the impact of Israel's construction of a wall in the Palestinian territories. A spokesman for UNRWA said she is due to meet Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat later today.

UNICEF said today it is deeply concerned about the impact on children of the ongoing military operation in the Gaza Strip, particularly a missile strike Wednesday that claimed the lives of at least 10 Palestinians, many of them children.

"Palestinian children have a right to be protected against all acts of violence in the midst of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict," said David S. Bassiouni, UNICEF Special Representative in Jerusalem. "They have a right to a safe shelter, safe access to their schools and to health services," he said.

With the recent military actions in Rafah - and Wednesday's missile strike - at least 10 children have already lost their lives, including Asma and Ahmed, a 16 and 13-year-old girl and boy, respectively, shot in their home in Rafah on Tuesday morning. Many additional children have been injured and all are facing psychosocial distress.

The ongoing house demolitions in Rafah have left more 1,100 Palestinian people homeless in a 10 day period alone, out of which almost 600 are children. Between September 2000 and May 2004, more than 11,000 Palestinians have lost their homes.

UNICEF, jointly with other UN agencies, is assessing the impact of house demolitions on children and will support efforts to help restore normalcy to children's lives.

Since the start of the conflict, Israeli and Palestinian children have paid a very heavy price, UNICEF said. Over 660 children under age 18 have been killed, of which 560 were Palestinian and 104 were Israeli - including four Israeli sisters killed by militants in an attack in the Gaza Strip on May 2.

"UNICEF calls on the State of Israel to abide by its obligations to the Convention on the Rights of the Child by protecting children from direct exposure to violence, and providing those who have lost their homes with alternative housing," Bassiouni said. "The injudicious use of force where children are present can only bring about the deaths of innocent youngsters. We urge the Israeli authorities to reconsider the impact these incursions are having on Palestinian children."

JERUSALEM, 2 October 2002 ? A month into the Palestinian school year, the UNICEF Special Representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Pierre Poupard, today expressed serious concern over the number of Palestinian children being prevented from attending school by Israel-imposed restrictions.

"Right now the Israeli military is preventing thousands of Palestinian children and teachers from attending school," Mr Poupard said. "A generation of Palestinian children is being denied their right to an education."

While UNICEF noted that most Palestinian children have either returned to school or are receiving alternative schooling, it said that more than 226,000 children and over 9,300 teachers are unable to reach their regular classrooms and at least 580 schools have been closed due to Israeli military curfews, closures and home confinement.

UNICEF said Israel has an obligation to ensure education is accessible to every Palestinian child, in accordance with the 4th Geneva Convention and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. As an absolute minimum, mobility restrictions on Palestinian civilians must be lifted throughout the OPT during school hours. There are almost 1 million Palestinian children of school age. Children living in the districts of Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem and Hebron are most affected.

The mobility restrictions in these areas have necessitated the creation of a substitute schooling system. Many Palestinian school children are now being home-schooled by their parents, or gathering in makeshift classrooms such as mosques, basements, and alleyways. "Alternative schooling initiatives are an indication of the extent to which the regular lives of Palestinian children are being devastated by this conflict," said Mr Poupard.

UNICEF cautioned that the quality of home education can not be assessed or assured. UNICEF emphasized that the organizers and teachers of alternative schooling have a responsibility to ensure their actions are in the best interests of children at all times.

UNICEF is currently implementing a 'back to school' campaign to help ensure that the poorest Palestinian children can afford to stay in school. The campaign includes the provision of school uniforms and school bags ? expenses that often keep poor children out of the classroom. The campaign is supporting over 14,000 children.

"This year, with the economy on the verge of collapse, many Palestinian parents are unable to afford to send their children to school. UNICEF appeals to the donor community for further support," Mr Poupard said. Some 317,000 Palestinian school children are now in desperate need of assistance due to financial hardship.

Last school year, UNICEF supported a community-based education program in Hebron and Khan Younis assisting over 12,250 Palestinian children whose education was disrupted as a result of the crisis. This year, UNICEF is expanding the program by supporting officially-endorsed home schooling initiatives.

For further information, please contact:
Kirsten Zaat, Communication Officer,
UNICEF-OPT, +972 (0)57 784 373, or kzaat@unicef.org