Media Digest #1

The Situation in Occupied Palestine

[7-16 April 2025]

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Joint Report on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day

In this joint-report, Palestinian prisoner defense and advocacy groups (including the official Commission of Detainees’ Affairs) lay out the key realities and figures regarding the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli custody, who are being subjected to unprecedented and horrifying levels of systematic torture, abuse, sexual assault, starvation, and medical neglect.

• Over 9,900 Palestinian political prisoners are being held in Israeli prisons — not including the thousands of detainees abducted from Gaza and forcibly disappeared.
• 3,498 Palestinians are being held in Israeli custody under Administrative Detention (without trial or charge) — including over 100 children.
• 63 Palestinian detainees have been killed in Israeli custody since October 2023 — most recently a 17-year-old child, Walid Ahmad, who was starved to death in March.

“The entire international human rights system must view this as a new phase that threatens humanity as a whole, not just Palestinians.”

PM Mustafa: “This is Not Just a War”

On 15 April, in the first EU-Palestine High-Level Political Dialogue with all 27 EU member states, Palestinian Prime Minister Dr Mohammad Mustafa highlighted the dire situation in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians since October 2023, and in the West Bank, where Israel’s mass displacement and land confiscation measures are accelerating.

He warned:

“What we are witnessing is not just a war — it is an attempt to erase a people and a cause.”

• Israel is actively attempting to alter the demographic makeup of Palestine through forced displacement and land annexation.
• Support for the two-state solution must translate into concrete steps to end the prolonged Israeli occupation: “two states cannot exist if one perpetuates its occupation against the other.”
• Israel’s continuous attempts to weaken the Palestinian Authority—financially, politically, or otherwise—threaten regional stability as a whole.
• The Arab League Reconstruction Plan — backed by the EU and OIC — offers a clear path forward for the reconstruction of Gaza without uprooting its people.
• There can be no lasting peace without accountability. Israel must be held responsible for its crimes: “Silence or delay only leads to impunity.”
• An immediate ceasefire must be implemented in accordance with UNSC Res. 2735 — not as a political demand, but as a matter of life and death.

The PM concluded by calling on the EU to exert every possible effort to shift the course of the conflict—from bloodshed to ceasefire, from destruction to reconstruction, from occupation to liberation.

Christian Worshippers Barred from Palm Sunday Services

• Thousands of Christian Palestinians were denied access to Palm Sunday celebrations in occupied Jerusalem by Israeli occupation authorities.
• The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the Israeli occupation’s imposition of arbitrary measures and restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom of worship, movement, and access to their holy sites.
• The Ministry further called for global Christian solidarity and serious international pressure to compel the Israeli occupation to fulfil its obligations towards the Palestinian people and their rights under international law and the Geneva Conventions.

Israeli Incursions into Muslim Holy Sites

• The Palestinian Cabinet has condemned the ongoing incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem and the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron by Israeli colonists, accompanied by extremist Israeli ministers and heavily protected by Israeli occupation forces. These incursions coincided with the Israeli decision to close the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim worshippers.
• The Cabinet described these actions as dangerous provocations and a flagrant violation of the sanctity of religious sites, viewing them as part of Israel’s persistent efforts to Judaize Islamic holy sites.
• It reaffirmed that such measures constitute a clear breach of international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits violations of freedom of worship or any alteration to the status quo of religious sites under occupation.

Israel’s Destruction of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, Gaza

• Israel’s brutal airstrikes against the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital on the eve of Palm Sunday rendered it completely inoperable.
• This targeted attack came after the Israeli occupation’s deliberate destruction of 34 hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
• The Palestinian Foreign Ministry considers the targeting of hospitals, healthcare centres, and medical personnel to be among the most horrific manifestations of Israel’s policy of complete destruction of all aspects of life in Gaza, aimed at forcibly displacing the Palestinian population. The Ministry affirms that this attack could not have occurred without the alarming inaction of the international community.
• The Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine denounced the attack as a direct insult to Christians in Palestine and worldwide, and emphasized that this incident cannot be regarded as an isolated or accidental occurrence, but rather as part of a systematic and deliberate policy aimed at dismantling the health sector and other essential components of life in the Gaza Strip.

“Under international humanitarian law, wounded and sick, medical personnel and medical facilities, including hospitals, must be respected and protected.” — UN Secretary-General Guterres, in response to the attack

PM Mustafa: Despite Threats, the Palestinian People will Prevail

In the context of the 4th Antalya Diplomacy Forum, during a high-level panel organized by the Arab-Islamic Ministerial Contact Group on the future of Gaza and Palestine, Palestinian Prime Minister Mustafa delivered an important address:

• Displacement, destruction, war, settlement, and economic sanctions are all threats we face— but the Palestinian people will prevail.
• The Palestinian Government is doing everything in its power to prevent forced displacement and to lay the groundwork for a better future in the Gaza Strip, within the broader framework towards the realization of a sovereign and independent Palestinian state.
• 149 countries around the world have already recognized the State of Palestine, despite all efforts by the Israeli occupation to undermine the Palestinian cause.
• “We are determined to reunify the West Bank and Gaza under one government and unified national institutions in the State of Palestine,” the Prime Minister affirmed, citing UNSC Resolution 2735, which affirms the Palestinian Authority’s responsibility over both Gaza and the West Bank.

“Despite all these violations and attacks, our people continue their struggle for independence and remain steadfast in defending their land, no matter the cost” — PM Mustafa

Expanding Forced Displacement Orders in the Gaza Strip

• Israeli occupation forces issued expanded “evacuation” orders targeting larger areas in Gaza and Khan Younis, confining innocent Palestinian civilians to an increasingly narrow area and paving the way for their forced displacement through starvation, thirst, and denial of basic medical care.
• The Palestinian Foreign Ministry views these orders as part of Israel’s ongoing systematic acts of genocide and calls for immediate international protection for the Palestinian people.

“We are witnessing acts of war in Gaza that show an utter disregard for human life. […] No one is safe.” — Top UN Officials, in a Joint-Statement

Collective Punishment in the West Bank

Israel’s Aggression Against Northern West Bank Continues

Israel's aggression against the northern occupied West Bank continues, especially in Jenin and Tulkarem, resulting in widespread destruction of infrastructure. Over 400 homes have been completely destroyed, and Israeli occupation forces continue to occupy and convert Palestinian homes into military posts.

Forced School Closures in Occupied Jerusalem

Israeli occupation forces and officials forcibly entered six UNRWA schools in occupied Jerusalem and issued closure orders. UNRWA schools provide education to refugee children, and are protected by the privileges and immunities of the United Nations.

The Palestinian Cabinet called on the UN to assume its legal and moral responsibilities by protecting UNRWA institutions in Jerusalem from these unlawful Israeli measures, which represent a blatant attempt to dismantle Jerusalem’s educational and service infrastructure and to impose illegal facts on the ground in direct violation of international law and international legitimacy resolutions.

Further Reading & Links

• [14 April] - Palestinian Government Weekly Situation Report #32 - Outlining key developments and updates in the situation in occupied Palestine.
• [10 April] - Palestinian Foreign Ministry - Facts and Figures (Israeli Genocidal Assault on Gaza since October 2023)