Embassy of the State of Palestine

 Weekly Situation Report #30: Occupied Palestine

17 March - 24 March 2025 (until 10:00 AM)

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The Palestinian Government Communication Center at the Prime Minister's Office has issued its weekly Situation Report covering the key developments over the past week across occupied Palestine. The next Situation Report will be issued on 7 April 2025.

 Key Developments

ISRAEL STARTS A NEW CHAPTER OF ITS GENOCIDE AGAINST GAZA

Amid fears of a worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip due to the ongoing blockade and the prevention of medical and humanitarian supplies entry, the Israeli occupation resumed its full-scale aggression against Gaza at dawn last Tuesday. This resulted in the martyrdom of 673 Palestinians and left at least 1,230 injured, while many remain trapped under the rubble (as of 22 March). The occupation is causing yet another wave of displacement for Palestinians in Gaza by issuing warnings that threaten residents in various areas to evacuate immediately. In the first 72 hours of the renewed Israeli aggression, 600 Palestinians were martyred, and over a thousand others sustained injuries, with 70% being children, women, and the elderly. On the first day, Tuesday, 18 March, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said, "Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed, including more than 130 children, representing one of the largest single-day child death tolls in the last year." On Wednesday morning, 19 March, the occupation targeted the residence of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) staff in Deir al-Balah, killing one and injuring at least five others, including some with severe injuries. During the past week, in addition to targeting several residential neighborhoods and displacement centers, including Palestinians living in tents, the occupation also blew up the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the only cancer hospital in Gaza, and struck Nasser Hospital. The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing described a world in which such savagery is tolerated and even praised as barbaric, devoid of values and decency. As repeatedly suggested by its own officials, Israel is planning to eradicate the Palestinian existence in Gaza.

ISRAEL CONTINUED AGGRESSION AGAINST THE NORTHERN WEST BANK

Israel's aggression against the northern West Bank continues, especially in Jenin, Tulkarem, Nablus, and Tubas. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that within the first two months of 2025, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) carried out 64 attacks on healthcare facilities and services, including ambulances, across the West Bank, resulting in the martyrdom of four Palestinians and the injury of more than ten others. WHO reported that 78% of those attacks occurred in the Jenin and Tulkarem governorates. The IOF's aggression on Jenin City and its refugee camp continues for the 63rd consecutive day amidst the bulldozing of infrastructure, the destruction and burning of homes, and the conversion of others into military barracks. According to initial estimates by local authorities, the IOF rendered over 600 residential units in Jenin uninhabitable. The IOF's aggression against the city of Tulkarem and its refugee camp has continued for the 57th consecutive day and the 44th day against the Nour Shams refugee camp, involving more forced evictions of citizens, destruction of homes, military assaults and arrests of Palestinian citizens, as well as widespread destruction of infrastructure. The IOF's military assaults have also targeted several areas in Nablus over the past week, including Nablus' Old City, Balata refugee camp, and Al-Ein refugee camp, where more than 80 families were forced to leave their homes.

OHCHR ANNUAL REPORT ON ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS

The annual report from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) focuses on Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine and the Arab Syrian Golan. It details several aspects of Israeli settlement activities between 1 November 2023 and 31 October 2024. During the reporting period, the occupation established 49 colonial installations (outposts), an unprecedented figure compared to an annual average of 8 colonial installations over the past decade. It also declared a "record-breaking" 24,193 dunams of land in the West Bank as "State land," bringing the total to 1.4 million dunams, with 99.76% allocated to Israeli settlers. Additionally, it allowed its settlers to carry out approximately 1,400 attack incidents against Palestinian citizens, 126 of which resulted in killings & injuries. The report emphasizes that "Such developments further institutionalize long-standing patterns of systematic discrimination, segregation, oppression, domination, violence, and other inhumane acts against the Palestinian people, as well as control of the Occupied Palestinian Territory."

A NEW ISRAELI BILL TO INCREASE PENALTIES ON PALESTINIANS

The Israeli Knesset plenum approved a bill in its preliminary reading that increases penalties for Palestinians, mainly targeting workers from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip who enter Israel without permits. According to the wording of the bill, the penalty for entering Israel without a permit could be as much as four years in prison, with a minimum sentence of one year. If the "offense" recurs, the minimum sentence is two years, and the minimum sentence for a third "offense" is three years.

THE NUMBER OF FEMALE PALESTINIAN PRISONERS HAS INCREASED TO 26

The Palestinian Prisoners Society reported that the Israeli occupation authorities continue to escalate their targeting of women through systematic arrests, adding that the total number of female prisoners in occupation prisons has increased to 26 during March 2025 after the arrest of 14 women, including three sisters from Hebron. Eight of the 14 women remain in detention.

Summary

GAZA STRIP

Since the onset of Israel's genocidal aggression on Gaza, the IOF has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, majority of whom are women and children, and wounded at least 113,270 more. Since the ceasefire took effect on 19 January, approximately 889 bodies have been retrieved (until 17 March). During the past week, the IOF targeted the home of Hussam Al-Titi, a Palestinian journalist who worked with ABC News until 2014, killing him along with his wife and daughter. His three sons remain hospitalized.

• 7% of Gaza's population have been Killed or Injured
• 148,000 displaced people in 116 UNRWA shelters
• 92% Housing Units Destroyed/Damaged
• 22 of Gaza's 35 Hospitals are Functional (all partially)
• Report: water shortage in Gaza is leading to increased disease rates, esp. among children.
• Nutrition Cluster: 10-20% of 4,500 surveyed pregnant/ breastfeeding women are malnourished.
• The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics & the Palestinian Water Authority: over 85% of water and sanitation facilities and assets are either fully or partially out of service.

WEST BANK

In the occupied West Bank, incl. Jerusalem, since 7 October 2023, the IOF has killed 943 Palestinians, incl. 188 children and 20 women, and injured at least 7,903 others [Palestinian MoH and UNOCHA].

In Tulkarem, footage from a surveillance camera captured the IOF attacking and vandalizing a local restaurant and arresting one of the workers.

• 56 IOF Shooting Incidents (aerial bombardment excluded)
• 242 IOF Military Assaults
• 30 Incidents of Settler Terror Attacks
• Joint report by Kerem Navot & Peace Now: Land Grabbing by Israeli Settlers in the Occupied West Bank Through Grazing.

[NOTE: The same incident may result in/involve multiple attacks]

In Focus

Yesterday, Israel, the occupying Power, approved a plan to separate and legalize 13 colonial installations (outposts) in the occupied West Bank. About the plan, Israeli Minister Smotrich said "We continue to lead a revolution of normalization and regulation in the settlements. Instead of hiding and apologizing – we raise the flag, build and settle. This is another important step on the path to actual sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank)."

The head of the Colonization & Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC), Mu’ayyad Shaa’ban, stated that this move represents a significant step that will further entrench Israel's colonial settlements in occupied Palestine by allowing those colonial installations to take advantage of all the occupation government's privileges and services.

Shaa’ban added that the aim is to disrupt and fragment Palestinian geography, noting that four of these colonial installations are situated in Ramallah Governorate, four more are in Bethlehem Governorate, along with two located in Salfit Governorate, and one each in Nablus, Jericho, and Tubas.

The occupation's intention, Shaa’ban explained, is to expand these settlements, seize more Palestinian land, and reduce the geographical contiguity between Palestinian villages and towns in the occupied West Bank.

Government Updates

• The Palestinian Government has introduced an austerity budget for the fiscal year 2025, reaffirming its commitment to financial and institutional reform, fiscal discipline, and institutional development despite a severe and escalating financial crisis driven primarily by Israel’s illegal deductions from Palestinian tax revenues, which amount to nearly half of the total tax revenues collected on behalf of Palestinians each month. This ‘emergency budget’ prioritizes urgent public services while advancing essential institutional and financial reforms to strengthen economic resilience, ensure the continuity of vital public services, and enhance long-term economic sustainability.
   
• Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Mohammad Mustafa, met Sunday in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart, Dr. Mostafa Madbouly. They discussed ongoing efforts to halt the occupation's aggression against the Palestinian people and advance Gaza’s reconstruction. Dr. Mohammad Mustafa emphasized the critical need for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to support and improve early recovery and reconstruction efforts. Egyptian Prime Minister Madbouly stressed the importance of solidifying the ceasefire as a crucial step to stopping Palestinian bloodshed and facilitating reconstruction, while making sure that Palestinians in Gaza stay on their land.