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

“It is unconscionable that Bethlehem should be allowed to die slowly from strangulation.”

—Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 2005

Bethlehem has historically been a beacon of multiculturalism and coexistence in the Middle East. It has also been integral to the social and economic fabric of Palestinian society.

Construction of Israel’s Wall in and around Bethlehem, ongoing Israeli settlement (colony) expansion, and other Israeli policies designed to sever Bethlehem from occupied East Jerusalem have decimated Bethlehem’s once vibrant economy and transformed the historic city into a concrete ghetto. All this continues despite the International Court of Justice’s July 9th, 2004 opinion, which deemed Israel’s Wall and all of its settlements illegal.

This ghettoization of Bethlehem is not only destroying ancient communities, but is also directly impeding prospects for Middle East peace. Because of Bethlehem’s significance to and historic ties with Palestinian East Jerusalem, Bethlehem’s demise may well mark the beginning of the end of the Two-State solution. For without East Jerusalem there can be no viable Palestinian state, and hence no viable peace.

This fact sheet outlines the grave threats facing Bethlehem, and by extension a viable peace today. The damage visited upon Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and the Two-State Solution could potentially be reversed if appropriate action is taken now.

To View the Full Report

Last night, another high-level meeting in a series of meetings between Palestinians and Israelis over the Rafah crossing point between Egypt and Gaza concluded without an agreement that would permit Palestinians to open the crossing point. Palestinian Minister Ghassan Khatib, who is in charge of coordinating outstanding issues post-“Disengagement” with Israel, expressed “deep frustration” with Israel’s “refusal to coordinate in good faith.”

The Rafah crossing point connects Egypt with the Gaza Strip. It is one of many outstanding issues stemming from Israel’s evacuation of the Gaza Strip, including the overland crossing points of Karni, which historically provides access to the West Bank, and Erez. Although the World Bank has invited the parties to hold meetings on Karni and Erez over the past six weeks, Israel has refused to convene this tripartite committee.

In fact, since Israel concluded the evacuation of its settlers from the Gaza Strip on September 12th, 2005 Israel has tightened its control over all entry/exit points to the Gaza Strip, including Rafah. The Palestinians, the World Bank, and the international community have long maintained that without the free flow of people and goods between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank—and between the Gaza Strip and the rest of the world—the Gaza Strip would remain embroiled in humanitarian crisis and political instability.

Israel, however, continues to press for ultimate control over the flow of people and goods between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. In recent meetings, it has called for live transmissions to monitor crossings, veto power over persons and goods traveling through Rafah, or agreements with Egyptians, rather than Palestinians, to ensure ultimate Israeli control.

In addition to Minister Khatib, the meeting was attended by Chief Palestinian Negotiator Dr. Saeb Erekat and Head of the Crossing Points Authority Nazmi Muhana on the Palestinian side. Eitan Dangot, Ammos Gilaad, Baruch Speigal, and Einat Wolfe represented Israel. The meeting was chaired by representatives from the office of Quartet Special Envoy James Wolfensohn.

Minister Khatib decried the situation as “ridiculous.” “We have done everything possible to coordinate with Israel,” said Dr. Khatib. “But as James Wolfensohn noted, coordination has brought much less than expected and it is almost as if the ‘Disengagement’ had never occurred.”

Mr. Khatib noted that the Palestinian Authority had worked with USAID to fully equip the Rafah crossing point and had invited the European Union to assist initially with managing the crossing point and monitoring Palestinian compliance with international standards. “With the international community’s assistance,” Mr. Khatib continued, “Rafah could be open and functional tomorrow.”

“Instead,” Mr. Khatib said, “Israel wants to control Rafah. We think Rafah should be an issue between us and Egypt. We’ve made proposals deemed reasonable and endorsed by the international community.”

Mr. Khatib noted since September 12th, Israel had conducted over 1,000 military raids in the territories, arrested nearly 700 Palestinians, and killed almost 30 Palestinians, all the while making room for over three times the number of settlers in the West Bank than it had evacuated from Gaza as part of “Disengagement,” especially in and around occupied East Jerusalem.

“Based on this illegal activity and Israel’s refusal to even talk about returning to negotiations, I’m convinced,” said Mr. Khatib, “that Israeli coordination is little more than smoke and mirrors.”

Mr. Khatib concluded his remarks with a harsh admonition of Israel: “Israel is addicted to occupation—to control. It doesn’t seem to understand that both Israeli and Palestinian security depends on Israel letting go. By holding on, Palestinians are caged in disconnected prisons, without hope or future—and the newly-elected government can’t even dream to provide the most basic services, much less improve security for Palestinians.”

“This is a tragedy. For both our peoples. We have the opportunity today—today—to negotiate a lasting and fair peace. Yes, opening Rafah is a small beginning, not an end. We urgently need to deal with Karni, Erez, a link to the West Bank, the closure regime in the West Bank, and the airport and seaport as well. But let our new Leadership, a Leadership committed to peaceful dialogue and negotiating an end to this historic conflict now, do its job. But we can never, and will never, agree to acting as Israel’s wardens in our own prison.”

The Minister will hold an in-depth political briefing tomorrow, November 1st, at 10:00 AM at the Prime Minister’s Offices in Ramallah.

Last night, the Quartet’s Special Envoy James Wolfensohn and his aides convened high-level talks on opening the Rafah crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Palestinian Minister of Planning Ghassan Khatib deemed the issue “critical to easing Gaza’s economic and humanitarian crisis and vital to stabilizing its political and security situation.” He expressed hope the Israel would agree to a resolution as early as tomorrow, when the next meeting is scheduled.

The Rafah Crossing point lies on Gaza’s border with Egypt and is expected to represent one of the main corridors of trade and travel between a future state of Palestine and the outside world. “Opening Rafah is a significant step towards freeing an entire civilian population. It will mean more jobs, more trade, and ultimately more hope.”

Currently, over two-thirds of Gaza’s 1.3 million residents subsist on US$ 2.25 or less per day while paying some of the highest electricity rates in the world to Israel. The World Bank and the United Nations have identified Israel’s “closure regime”—its systematic restrictions on travel and trade within and between the occupied Gaza Strip and the West Bank and beyond—as a direct cause of the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory.

“In fact,” the Minister asserted, “Israel has tightened its grip on the Palestinian people and their economies since completing its evacuation. Karni crossing…used to average 50 truckloads of Palestinian exports destined for the West Bank each day,” he said. “Now only an average of 20 [truckloads] make it through.”

Nevertheless, Minister Khatib said he was “cautiously optimistic [since] we achieved small but meaningful progress [in the more than four hours of discussions].” But he cautioned that while coordination is good, no one can afford to fail. “In general, we have an historic opportunity to negotiate a fair and viable solution to this conflict. To seize this opportunity, we need to actually improve people’s daily lives. Gaza has been strangled for too long; we need to ease the suffocation of Gaza now.”

When asked about James Wolfensohn’s role, who called and chaired the series of meetings, Minister Khatib said that he had been “a positive, constructive, and essential presence [in bringing the Palestinians and Israelis together].”

A follow-up meeting on Rafah has been scheduled for tomorrow. Talks between Israelis and Palestinians on customs and security are also scheduled to be held later this week.

As Israel was completing its evacuation of 8,500 settlers in the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank yesterday, it embarked on plans to make room for 25,000 more settlers in Ma’ale Adumim, a settlement east of Jerusalem. If enacted, this plan will mean an end to the Two-State Solution.

Ma’ale Adumim lies 4.5 kilometers east of the 1967 pre-occupation border and 2 kilometers east of the Israeli-defined municipal boundary of Jerusalem—a boundary deemed illegal by the international community. Currently, some 30,000 settlers live in Ma’ale Adumim. While construction was underway on hundreds of new units tendered last year, the Israeli government approved construction of an additional 2,100 units this year, which could house approximately 10,000 new settlers

Another 3,500 units, which could house over 15,000 new settlers, have been approved in the so-called “E-1 Plan.” The E-1 Plan aims to link Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem, at the direct expense of Palestinian Christian and Muslim communities that lie in between. At the request of the Bush administration, Israel placed construction of these units on hold. However, on August 16, 2005 Israel issued confiscation orders for 1,600 dunums (400 acres) of Palestinian land for the Wall around Ma’ale Adumim, including the area slated for E-1, suggesting that construction of these units is not a matter of if, but when.

When complete, Israel’s Wall around Ma’ale Adumim, including E-1, will extend 14 km into the occupied West Bank—staking out an area for the Adumim bloc’s settlements larger than that of Tel Aviv.

(For a map of Ma’ale Adumim, E-1, and the new confiscation orders, please visit: http://www.nad-plo.org/news-updates/maale_adumim.pdf )

A Palestinian capital and free Palestinian access to and from East Jerusalem is essential to a viable two-state solution. Metropolitan East Jerusalem, which includes Bethlehem and Ramallah, accounts for 30-40% of the Palestinian economy. The ancient city is also the historic cultural and political center of Palestinian life.

Palestinian access to East Jerusalem could also promote the success of Gaza “Disengagement”: creating links between East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip could help reinvigorate Gaza’s decimated economy by providing Palestinians in Gaza with access to East Jerusalem’s unique international market.

However, Ma’ale Adumim, Israel’s Wall and the settlement rings around East Jerusalem cut off East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and slice the West Bank in two. Fragmenting East Jerusalem and severing East Jerusalem from the communities on which it has historically depended means that it is increasingly difficult for Jerusalem’s historic Palestinian communities to sustain themselves. If enacted, the E-1 Plan will provide territorial contiguity for 30,000 illegal settlers by denying that contiguity for 2.4 million Palestinians in the rest of the occupied West Bank.

Israeli officials have countered that a road could be built to link Ramallah to Bethlehem. Ramallah is located north of East Jerusalem and Bethlehem to the city’s south. This proposal, however, would still deny Palestinians access to the East Jerusalem because the road would bypass the city. It would also facilitate the expansion of Israel’s settlements and the construction of Israel’s Wall, all illegal under international law. And by aiding the expansion of Israel’s settlements and the continued construction of Israel’s Wall, this proposal would continue to restrict the natural development of Palestinian communities on Palestinian land, forcing Palestinians into ever-shrinking ghettoes.

On February 7th, The Washington Post confirmed Israel’s Jerusalem strategy when it released the findings of an investigative report. The investigation concluded that all of Israel’s ministries had conspired to violate both international law and Israeli law to consolidate its hold in Jerusalem while severing Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. While “Disengagement” proves that Israel can reverse its illegal settlement policy, the harm to historic Palestinian communities may not be reversible.

The Palestinian leadership calls on Israel to seize the day after “Disengagement” as an opportunity for peace, rather than to permit Israel to disengage from the Two-State Solution. The Palestinian leadership is committed to returning immediately to the Road Map for Peace, which includes a freeze on all settlement construction.

The Palestinian Leadership recognizes the important opportunity that the evacuation of 2% of Israel’s settlers creates, but fears that settlement expansion in E-1 and Ma’ale Adumim may squander that historic opportunity—and with it, any hope of achieving a viable two-state solution.