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.

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Palestinian Women – The Disproportionate Impact of the Israeli Occupation

The Special Envoy most recently visited the region from 7-12 October 2005 to try and conclude the "six plus three” agenda outlined in his letter to the two Prime Ministers on June 20th and to the international community in his office's periodic reports. The Special Envoy was disappointed that none of the key movement issues has been resolved. Without a dramatic improvement in Palestinian movement and access within appropriate security arrangements for Israel, the economic revival essential to a resolution of the conflict will not be possible.

The Six “Joint Issues”

1. Border Crossings and Trade Corridors

a) The Crossings between Egypt and Gaza---Rafah

The IDF's early departure on 12 September from the Philadelphi corridor between Gaza and Egypt led to spontaneous Palestinian celebrations, the breaking down of parts of the wall along the corridor, and visits by thousands into Egypt for the first time in years. The Egyptians closed the Rafah crossing on 17 September when Palestinians fired rockets into Israel and the IDF responded. Since then, the Rafah crossing has only been fully open for 3 days or intermittently for humanitarian cases and for those trapped on either side.

With the benefit of discussions with Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian leaders on this issue, Mr. Wolfensohn chaired two trilateral meetings on Rafah. Agreement was reached on a large number of issues. He concluded that the sides were not that far apart on the remaining issues and that, assuming both sides were serious about a resolution, an agreement should be achievable in a short period of time. On the unresolved points the Palestinians urged him to propose a solution, but the Israelis, on a number of points, suggested further study by subordinate committees.

Many of these committees will not meet for another two weeks due to Jewish holidays. Approximately 75% of the issues have been resolved with the remaining 25% of the issues to be resolved in the next one or two meetings.

Despite both sides' agreement to a third party presence along the Egyptian border, the Israelis have not yet received Cabinet approval to accept the EU's generous offer. Mr. Wolfensohn urged the Israeli side to begin discussions with the Europeans to determine the role, missions and operational details of this third party as soon as possible. Palestinian and Israelis did agree that a third party would have to be deployed immediately after a decision was reached on Rafah and agreed in part on the role of that third party: i) meet high professional standards, ii) strengthen Palestinian capacity in customs and security operation, iii) would 'not do the job' for the Palestinians but rather monitor actively compliance with security and customs requirements, and iv) would intervene in accordance with established principles to be worked out between the two parties and the third party.

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The recent disengagement from the Gaza Strip and Northern West Bank was successfully managed by the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Some 9000 settlers were evacuated swiftly and with minimal incident. Remarkable professionalism was displayed by the IDF soldiers, enabling the settlers to move on in dignity and peace. The Palestinian Authority maintained calm and order during this highly emotional period, and the Palestinian security services displayed model cooperation with the IDF. Other than the settlement houses, which were dismantled by agreement between the parties the settlement assets were in large part left intact for the benefit of the Palestinians.

In short, we have all witnessed an historical event---and one that clearly signals the ability of the parties to work together.

Six Joint Issues

Since June, the Special Envoy and his team have focused most of their efforts on the "six plus three issues". The main current issue covered in intensive talks this month is the establishment of access between Gaza and Egypt.

At the time of writing, the issue of the crossing from Gaza to Egypt at Rafah is not resolved.

After several days of uncontrolled flows of Palestinians to and from Egypt, the PA security forces closed the Rafah crossing temporarily. Israel is proposing a temporary crossing point at Kerem Shalom/Dahnyeh for goods and people entering and leaving the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians are seeking to reopen Rafah for people very quickly. The elements of a solution— cameras, computers and other equipment; a third party presence; goods temporarily through Kerem Shalom, people sooner or later through Rafah—are generally agreed, but the parties need to discuss and agree the timing and the details. The resolution of this issue is crucially important for the other movement and access issues, described below.

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The Special Envoy concluded his fourth visit to the region on 10 August since his appointment at the beginning of June 2005. With Disengagement scheduled to begin in a week's time, all efforts have been focused on resolution of the six joint issues.

(1) Border Crossings and Trade Corridors: Coordination between the two sides has been underscored by the visits of Secretary Rice and Javier Solana. The Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority have now agreed to two key steps on the crossing points: first, the introduction of a modern, coordinated management system based on the publication and transparent monitoring of terminal service standards and procedures; and second, replacement of the inefficient "back to back” cargo management system (i.e. full unloading and reloading of all cargoes at the border) with mechanisms that use scanner technology---progressing in time to the through passage of Palestinian trucks (so-called “door to door” movement). Detailed discussions are underway between two committees to reach agreement on a new approach which will produce an immediate, significant and visible change in the movement of goods in and out of the West Bank and Gaza. Once the basic agreements are in place, USAID and the World Bank will move to provide financial and technical support for this regeneration and improvement of the border management regime.

One crossing that deserves special mention is the border between Egypt and Gaza at Rafah. Israel remains concerned about post-disengagement security management and customs considerations along the Philadelphi Line. This is reflected in intensive discussions with the Government of Egypt and by internal debate in the Israeli cabinet and among the Israelis, Palestinians and Egyptians about whether or not to allow the continuation of today’s arrangements at Rafah or consider alternatives at the three way border in Kerem Shalom. The outcome of these discussions is still not certain, and deliberations are expected to continue in the coming weeks. It will be the central issue in the days and weeks ahead and will affect both security and custom issues also of great importance. The European commission has undertaken a preliminary study into design and costs of a sunken territorial link.

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