PALESTINE’S LEGAL SCENE – Issue.277

Your weekly survey of the most important publications and activities related to Palestine and law, from local and international sources

 20 – 26 April 2025

Issued every Sunday by Law for Palestine

Prepared by: Razwan Issa, Nour Kharouf, Arwa Abdel Moniam, Kamal Abdulkarim, Murad Abu Murad

Translation: Mai Shaheen and Mays Abu Atwan

Editing: Haneen Shadeed

This weekly report reviews the legal dynamics of the Palestine question, and everything related to international law and Palestine. The report includes an account of the most important publications, activities and conferences related to Palestine at the local, regional, international levels. The report further covers decisions, decrees, and judicial orders affecting the Palestinian cause, whether made at the official, academic or public levels. The report aims to be a reference for monitoring, documenting and archiving the latest human rights developments related to Palestine, and to present them to individuals, researchers, study centers, and official, academic and legal institutions concerned.

To view this Issue of Palestine’s Legal Scene, please click here (5 minutes read)

Judicial decrees, decisions, positions, and orders issued by official Palestinian bodies

• The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates (MOFAE) has strongly condemned Israeli occupation forces (IOF) and settlers for imposing arbitrary restrictions on Christian citizens during Easter celebrations, particularly denying thousands access to holy sites in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. It also expressed grave concern over the worsening humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, warning that famine is rapidly spreading and threatening the lives of more than two million Palestinians. Citing a United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warning about the imminent depletion of food supplies, the Ministry called for urgent international action. (April 14-21, 2025)
• President of the Palestinian National Council, Rawhi Fattouh, has deplored the Israeli occupation authorities for cancelling the visas of an official French parliamentary delegation, preventing them from entering the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Fattouh described the move as reflective of Israel’s “racist colonial mentality” and accused it of aiming to obscure the reality of the crimes and violations committed daily against the Palestinian people. (April 22, 2025)
• The Palestinian government has announced its extreme concern over the decision by the Israeli occupation authorities to ban the Minister of Jerusalem Affairs from entering the West Bank for six months. The government described the move as a deliberate attempt to further isolate Jerusalem from its national and institutional surroundings, framing it as part of a systematic policy aimed at undermining the official Palestinian presence in the city and advancing ongoing annexation and Judaization efforts. (April 21, 2025)
• The Refugee Affairs Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has condemned the decision by the U.S. Department of Justice to refuse recognition of UNRWA as a United Nations agency and to deny it diplomatic immunity. The Department described the move as a dangerous precedent that constitutes an attack on international law, the United Nations Charter, and the broader international community. (April 26, 2025)

 Judicial decrees, decisions, positions, and orders issued by official Israeli bodies

• Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called for the imposition of the death penalty against Palestinians he accuses of terrorism, stating that “there is no redemption, there is no remedy or rehabilitation” for them. Speaking at an event, Ben-Gvir said he would even support the use of an electric chair if he could convince Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (April 20, 2025)
• The Israeli army has announced the results of an internal investigation into the incident in the Gaza Strip where Israeli occupation forces (IOF) opened fire on Palestinian rescue teams and civilian vehicles, resulting in the deaths of 15 Palestinians. The IOF claimed that the shooting occurred in a hostile combat environment under significant threat, and justified it as an operational miscalculation, saying troops mistakenly identified the vehicles and rescue teams as hostile elements. Among those killed, six were reportedly identified by Israel as Hamas members. The investigation also confirmed that a United Nations-marked vehicle was mistakenly targeted, in violation of operational orders, though no mention was made of any disciplinary action. (April 20, 2025)
• Israel has cancelled entry visas for 27 French left-wing lawmakers and local officials shortly before their scheduled visit to Israel and the Palestinian territory, citing a law that allows authorities to deny entry to individuals perceived as acting against the state. The cancelled delegation, which intended to meet with Palestinian officials and civil society groups, denounced the move as a form of collective punishment and called on French President Emmanuel Macron to intervene. (April 21, 2025)
• Israeli Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, has defended Israel’s military conduct in Gaza following criticism from U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who accused Israel of engaging in mass killings of civilians. Katz claimed that Israel was acting in full accordance with international law and that humanitarian needs in Gaza were being constantly monitored, with significant quantities of aid being delivered. Katz dismissed Senator Sanders’ statements as lacking an understanding of the situation on the ground. (April 22, 2025)
• Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee has announced a new evacuation order for residents of Beit Hanoun, Sheikh Zayed, Turukman, Jadida, and northeastern Zaytoun areas in the Gaza Strip, warning of an impending “strong attack” against what he termed “sniping operations and terrorist activities.” Adraee instructed civilians to move westward toward Gaza City to avoid the military operation. The evacuations come amid intensified Israeli military activity across multiple sectors of the Strip. (April 24-25, 2025)

Judicial decrees, decisions, positions, and orders issued by Arab, European, and international bodies

• Australian Greens Party Leader and Member of Parliament Adam Bandt has stated that “it is not too far” to accuse the Australian government of being complicit in the genocide unfolding in Gaza. In a public statement, Bandt emphasised that international law obliges states to act to stop genocide and strongly criticised the Labor government for continuing bilateral arms trade agreements with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government while failing to impose sanctions. He asserted that such inaction in the face of mass atrocities amounts to complicity. (April 20, 2025)
• The United Arab Emirates and Egypt have denounced incitement by Israeli extremist settler organisations advocating for the destruction of Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Both governments described these provocations as a serious assault on Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, and a grave provocation to the sentiments of Muslims worldwide. (April 20–21, 2025)
• UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, has called for the immediate removal of violent Israeli settlers from the West Bank, warning that their escalating attacks pose a direct threat to Palestinians and even Israeli activists who stand with them. Albanese stated that such settlers should be in jail or receiving mental health care, not illegally living on occupied land, highlighting the urgent need to restore protection for Palestinians under international law. (April 21, 2025)
• S. Senator Bernie Sanders has declared that “it’s been 51 days since ANY humanitarian aid has entered Gaza,” citing Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s own words that Israel’s policy is to block all aid from reaching Gaza. Sanders reaffirmed this as a war crime, and reiterated his call to end U.S. complicity in the Gaza war by halting military support to Netanyahu’s government. He strongly opposed the continued U.S. provision of weapons to what he termed Netanyahu’s “war machine.” (April 21, 2025)
• The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, has described Gaza as a “land of desperation” after fifty days of total blockade by Israeli forces. He warned that hunger is now spreading rapidly as part of a deliberate, man-made crisis. Lazzarini strongly condemned the use of humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip and a weapon of war, highlighting that around 3,000 UNRWA trucks loaded with life-saving assistance remain blocked from entering. (April 22, 2025)
• The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported that Israeli forces targeted several heavy machinery across the Gaza Strip used for waste and rubble removal, completely halting efforts to recover bodies from destroyed areas. The destruction of recovery vehicles has further deepened the humanitarian crisis, leaving thousands of bodies trapped under the rubble without the means to retrieve them. (April 22, 2025)
• The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has issued an urgent warning about the collapse of children’s and neonatal hospitals in the Gaza Strip, stating that facilities are operating under extreme conditions with an acute shortage of essential equipment, medicines, and electricity. UNICEF stressed that the ongoing blockade and denial of humanitarian aid are directly endangering the lives of newborns and children, calling for the immediate entry of humanitarian supplies and the reinstatement of the ceasefire to prevent further loss of life. (April 19, 2025)
• UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric has appointed Ian Martin of the United Kingdom as Head of the Strategic Assessment of UNRWA, tasked with evaluating the agency’s impact and ability to implement its mandate under current political, financial, and security constraints, as well as assessing the risks and consequences facing Palestinian refugees. According to the UN, the assessment is not intended to alter UNRWA’s General Assembly-approved mandate, but to enhance its effectiveness in serving Palestinian refugees in an increasingly hostile environment. (April 22, 2025)
• The Media Observatory of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has reported a serious escalation in Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, including the deliberate targeting of displaced persons’ tents. Over the past week, Israeli forces have arrested 157 Palestinians in the West Bank, including five children, while settlers carried out 54 attacks involving the burning of vehicles, sabotage of water and electricity facilities, property theft, the uprooting of olive trees, and brutal assaults against civilians and children across several Palestinian governorates. (April 22, 2025)
• In a joint statement, the foreign ministries of France, Germany and the United Kingdom have condemned Israel’s complete blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza, which has lasted more than fifty days. The statement warned that one million children are now at acute risk of starvation, epidemic disease and death, and called for the immediate, safe and unrestricted resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza’s civilian population. (April 23, 2025)
• Roland Friedrich, Director of UNRWA Affairs in the West Bank of Palestine, has reaffirmed that the rights of Palestine refugees are protected under international law, independent of UNRWA’s presence. He emphasised that UNRWA remains the only UN agency providing direct services to Palestine refugees and cannot be replaced by any other body. (April 23, 2025)
• OCHA has warned of a critical decline in food supplies in Gaza and a dangerous acceleration in the spread of malnutrition, particularly among children. One UN partner screened 1,300 children in northern Gaza last week, recording more than 80 cases of acute malnutrition — double the number observed in previous weeks — highlighting the growing humanitarian emergency. (April 23, 2025)
• In a joint statement with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, Jordanian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has stressed the urgent need to stop the aggression on Gaza, implement all stages of the prisoner exchange agreement and allow the immediate entry of humanitarian aid into the besieged Strip. (April 24, 2025)
• UNRWA has announced that its flour supplies have been completely depleted and that other food stocks are rapidly diminishing, as no humanitarian aid or supplies have been allowed into the Strip for more than 50 days. Approximately 3,000 trucks loaded with life-saving aid remain ready but are blocked from entering Gaza due to Israeli restrictions, worsening the already catastrophic humanitarian situation. (April 24, 2025)
• The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced that all food stocks intended for families in Gaza have run out, more than seven weeks after border crossings were closed. It confirmed that all 25 bakeries it supported ceased operating on March 31 due to the exhaustion of wheat flour and cooking fuel leaving Gaza’s civilian population facing imminent famine. (April 24-25, 2025)
• The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued its ruling on Israel’s appeal against Pre-Trial Chamber I’s decision to dismiss its challenge to the Court’s jurisdiction. The Pre-Trial Chamber had deemed Israel’s challenge “premature.” The Appeals Chamber found that the Pre-Trial Chamber had failed to adequately address Israel’s argument that it was entitled to challenge the Court’s jurisdiction, and remanded the case to the Pre-Trial Chamber for a fresh ruling. However, the Appeals Chamber rejected Israel’s request to suspend the arrest warrants issued against Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, dismissing the request as frivolous. (April 24, 2025)
• The US Department of Justice informed the Southern District Court of New York that UNRWA would not be granted immunity from lawsuits in the United States, stating that it is not an official body of the UN. The Department claims that the UN General Assembly may have lacked proper authority when establishing UNRWA. (April 24, 2025)
• The Spanish government has cancelled a €6.6m arms contract with Israeli arms manufacturer IMI Systems, which included 15.3 million rounds of 9mm ammunition intended for the Guardia Civil police. The Spanish Interior Ministry announced it would deny the import license and stressed the government’s commitment to neither buy weapons from nor sell arms to Israel, while investigating how to legally annul contracts not completed before October 7, 2023. (April 24, 2025)
• UNRWA has reported that approximately half a million Palestinians have been newly displaced over the past month due to multiple Israeli evacuation orders, forcing residents into increasingly overcrowded, unsafe, and fragmented areas comprising less than one-third of Gaza’s original territory. The agency stressed the critical conditions in the shelters and called for an immediate ceasefire. (April 25, 2025)
• Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has emphasised that food must never be used as a political weapon, following the WFP’s announcement that its food stocks in Gaza had run out. Carney called for immediate humanitarian access to Gaza and reiterated Canada’s commitment to working with its allies towards securing a permanent ceasefire. (April 25, 2025)
• The British Foreign Office has warned top British human rights lawyers that they could face sanctions and global asset freezes under policies being considered by Donald Trump’s political camp. These lawyers were involved in advising the ICC prosecutor’s panel of experts in the decision to request arrest warrants against Israeli officials, including Netanyahu and Gallant. (April 25, 2025)
• OCHA has warned that “the coming days in Gaza are going to be critical.” The agency stated that “people are not surviving in Gaza; those who aren’t being killed by bombs and bullets are slowly dying.” OCHA emphasized that the crisis extends beyond humanitarian needs, highlighting an “assault on people’s dignity in Gaza today,” and described the ongoing war as being waged without any limits.​ (April 26, 2025)

Publications of human rights NGOs

• The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has published a field report titled “Violence Under Protection… Settler Attacks as a Tool of Forced Displacment in Hebron,” highlighting that Hebron is the city most affected by Israeli settlement activity, with numerous settlement outposts established deep within the city, particularly in the Old City. The report describes how Palestinians live under coercive conditions, including severe restrictions on movement, continuous military control over the city, and an escalation in settler violence aimed at forcibly displacing the Palestinian population. (April 20, 2025)
• The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has reported that Israel’s efforts to impose and expand “buffer zones” inside the Gaza Strip have involved widespread violations, including the killing and forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. The organisation detailed how Israeli military operations have destroyed civilian homes and used bombing, sniper fire, and live ammunition to isolate residents from their cities and neighbourhoods. Euro-Med Monitor warned that these actions form part of a broader strategy to forcibly reshape Gaza’s demographic composition through systematic violence and coercion, amounting to serious breaches of international law. (April 22, 2025)
• Thirty human rights organisations including Oxfam, Interpal, Action Aid and International Media Support (IMS), have jointly called on world leaders to uphold their legal and moral responsibilities in light of the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion and the UN General Assembly resolutions confirming that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza is illegal under international law. The organisations demanded Israel’s immediate withdrawal from Palestinian territory, an end to military and security support and a cessation of trade with illegal settlements. (April 22, 2025)
• PCHR has reported that Israeli forces have deliberately destroyed bulldozers and heavy equipment used for rescue operations, road clearing and rubble removal in the Gaza Strip. The Centre stated that such acts blatantly reflect Israel’s policy of imposing life conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians, framing these practices as integral acts withing the ongoing crime of genocide against Gaza’s population. (April 22, 2025)
• Al-Haq Organisation has sent letters to states preparing for oral interventions before the ICJ, urging them to address recent developments, including the total blockade of Gaza, the targeting of UNRWA and other aid organisations, new laws blocking humanitarian access and restrictions on relief workers. Al-Haq argued that these measures constitute elements of genocide and called for Israel’s suspension from the United Nations General Assembly. (April 22, 2025)
• Save the Children UK has criticised the British government for continuing arms transfers to Israel, including parts for F-35 fighter jets currently being used in Gaza to bomb and kill children. The organisation stated that Britain is complicit in the war on children and demanded an immediate suspension of all arms transfers to Israel, highlighting the ongoing killing of children under Israeli bombardment. (April 23, 2025)
• Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has warned that humanitarian teams in Gaza are facing daily operational dilemmas, including whether to remain in facilities under attack or attempt to expand services without supplies or fuel. MSF’s emergency coordinator, Franz Luef, stated that the Israeli protection mechanisms for humanitarian workers are mere “smoke and mirrors,” with unpredictable security conditions undermining any real ability to deliver aid safely. (April 24, 2025)
• Palestinian and international human rights organisations, including Medical Aid for Palestinians, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Al-Haq, and Adalah, have rejected the findings of the Israeli military’s investigation into the killing of 15 humanitarian workers in Rafah, describing the attack as part of a systematic pattern targeting health workers and facilities. They also documented Israeli attacks on Palestinian heritage sites, as well as policies of forced displacement and land theft. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel noted that more than 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced in the West Bank alone and have been prevented from returning. (April 24, 2025)

Research and academic studies (in Arabic and English):

• The International Journal of Political Science and International Relations has published a research paper by Oluyemi Opeoluwa Adisa titled, “State Terrorism and its Sponsor: The Israeli War in the Gaza Strip”.

Opinion Pieces and features

• Al Jazeera published an op-ed by Trude Strand titled, “The Hawaii of Israel: How Trump legitimised a longstanding Israeli vision.” (April 20, 2025)
• Mondoweiss published an op-ed by Judy Jones titled, “How European governments are using deportation to disrupt and criminalize Palestine solidarity.” (April 21, 2025)
• Haaretz published an article titled, “Don’t Look Away: Israel’s Annexation of the West Bank Is Already Here.” (April 22, 2025)
• Völkerrechtsblog published an article by Milena Paulin titled “The Plight of Palestinian Refugees: Interpreting Article 1D of the Refugee Convention.” (April 22, 2025)
• Arab News published an opinion piece by Osama Al-Sharif titled, “Israel cannot be trusted to protect freedom of religion in Jerusalem.” (April 22, 2025)
• Just Security published an article by Tamar Luster titled “Judging Deprivation – Humanitarian Aid in Gaza Before Israel’s Supreme Court and Beyond .” (April 22, 2025)
• Haaretz published an article titled, “Gaza’s Malnourished Children Cannot Wait. They Need Food Now.” ( April 23, 2025)
• The Fordham International Law Journal published an article by Shahrooz Abbas Nasir titled “Up for Sale: How the Marketing and Sale of Real Estate in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is Against International Law.” (April 25, 2025)
• Just Security published an article by Kevin Jon Heller tilted, “The Appeals Chamber Decides Israel’s Appeals — And Refuses to Suspend the Arrest Warrants.” ( April 25, 2025)

Human rights conferences and events

• Jadaliyya hosted a webinar titled, “Teaching Palestine Today: On the [F]Utility of International Law” featuring Ardi Imseis, Diana Buttu, Craig Mokhiber, Noura Erakat, and Nimer Sultany. To watch the recording of the webinar, click here. (April 24, 2025)