Executive Summary

On February 15, the government of Israel approved a process to register land in the occupied West Bank as Israeli “state property.” The decision builds on a cabinet resolution introduced in May of 2025 that established the framework for renewed land settlement proceedings on Palestinian land.

Implemented for the first time since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in 1967, this process enables Israeli authorities to declare land ‘state property’ when Palestinian ownership cannot be formally proven; a standard difficult for many Palestinians to meet. Even when landownership can be met, expropriative policies such as the Absentee Property Law allows Israel to confiscate Palestinian property and sell it to Israelis. A total of NIS 244.1 million has been allocated for this program, which has been stated to continue for decades. Israeli Government Resolution No. 3559 sets a first-phase objective of registering 15% of previously unregulated land within five years. [1]

This development follows the Israeli cabinet’s February 8th approval of a series of measures that expand Israeli control over land administration and acquisition in the West Bank, undermining the Palestinian Authority (PA) and amounting to de facto annexation. The details of the measures have not been released to the public, only communicated through a press release by government ministers.

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Introduction

Palestinian women in Gaza are subjected to overlapping forms of violence by Israel that converge into a single, coherent structure of domination. Starvation, sexual and gender-based violence, and reproductive violence do not occur as isolated abuses, but as an interlocking system enacted simultaneously and reinforcing one another. These practices operate across psychological, social, and biological dimensions of harm. While Palestinian women’s bodies are the immediate site of this violence, its intended target is Palestinian society as a whole. By systematically targeting women, Israel undermines collective survival, erodes social cohesion, and attacks the continuity of Palestinian life itself. Taken together, these practices constitute a gendered architecture of genocide that must be recognized and addressed as such.

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH) has documented these three crimes throughout Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Firsthand testimonies collected from the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank reveal the distinctly gendered impacts of these violations and their cumulative effects on Palestinian women.

I. Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Sexual and gender-based violence is systematically instrumentalized by Israel as a means of humiliating and isolating Palestinian women while dismantling family and community bonds. These violations should not be understood as isolated or aberrational incidents, but rather as part of a broader historical pattern in which sexual violence has been deployed as a tool of terror and social control against the Palestinian population.

Historical records document that during the 1948 ethnic cleansing of historic Palestine, Zionist paramilitary forces including the Haganah engaged in acts of sexual violence alongside mass killings and expulsions of Palestinians. The Haganah later became the institutional foundation of the contemporary Israeli military. This historical continuity underscores how sexual violence has long functioned as a weapon of war, embedded within military practices aimed at terrorizing civilians and facilitating population displacement.

Testimonies collected by MIFTAH fieldworkers across the West Bank and Gaza Strip reveal recurring patterns. Arrests conducted in family homes routinely transform domestic spaces into sites of domination. Soldiers storm houses, often in the middle of the night, restrain family members, destroy personal belongings, steal valuables, and dictate all movement within the home. Male relatives are frequently forced to witness or participate in the abuse of female family members, a tactic designed to emasculate men and dismantle the household from within.

Sexual violence also functions as a form of psychological torture in Israeli detention and interrogation settings. Alongside sleep deprivation, starvation, and physical assault, sexual violence is deliberately employed to induce psychological breakdown and assert total control. Testimonies describe forced strip searches, removal of hijabs, invasive bodily touching, slut-shaming, and explicit threats of rape against detainees or their relatives . Testimonies collected by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) describe in detail the systematic use of secual torture in Israeil detention settings. Sexual violence is further enacted through blackmail, including the use of nude or indecent photographs taken during interrogation to coerce compliance or enforce silence. These practices aim to strip women of dignity, break them psychologically prior to or during interrogation, and inflict lasting harm that weakens their sense of self long after release.

The full extent of sexual violence against Palestinian women today remains difficult to quantify, as survivors rarely disclose sexual assault or rape causing underreporting to be widespread. This silence reflects structural, legal, and social barriers rather than the absence of abuse. Palestinian survivors of violence perpetrated by Israeli soldiers or settlers seldom pursue legal avenues due to the well-documented lack of accountability within Israeli law enforcement mechanisms, where investigations rarely result in prosecution or redress .

Social stigma also plays a role in silencing survivors. In a predominantly conservative social context, sexual violence carries stigma that extends beyond the survivor to her family and community. Israeli forces exploit this reality deliberately, using sexual violence and threats to women’s “honor” as mechanisms of coercion, intimidation, and social fragmentation. In this way, sexual violence operates not only as an assault on individual women, but as a strategic instrument of collective harm.

II. Reproductive Violence

Reproductive violence targets women’s capacity to give life through the systematic destruction of healthcare systems, maternity services, and the material conditions necessary for survival. It refers to deliberate actions intended to impair an entire population’s ability to reproduce and sustain itself. In Gaza, reproductive violence is not incidental to armed conflict; it is enacted through policy-driven destruction that reflects intentionality rather than collateral harm.

This violence is carried out through the systematic targeting of life-sustaining infrastructure, including hospitals, maternity wards, neonatal units, fertility clinics, and embryo preservation centers, as well as the blockade of medicines, medical equipment, and hygiene supplies. The consequences are visible in rising maternal mortality, increased miscarriages linked to malnutrition and extreme stress, untreated reproductive infections, and the repeated displacement of pregnant women seeking care within a collapsing healthcare system .

These measures directly undermine women’s ability to safely conceive, carry pregnancies to term, give birth, and raise children. Women’s reproductive health is further compromised by the deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid and the collapse of sanitation and water infrastructure. The destruction of healthcare facilities, combined with ongoing bombardment and repeated displacement, has rendered movement dangerous and unpredictable, making access to medical care nearly impossible and severely limiting the ability of humanitarian organizations to provide reproductive and maternal health services.

As a result, there has been a sharp increase in preventable reproductive health complications. Women report rising cases of fever linked to untreated vaginal infections caused by inadequate hygiene and the absence of feminine hygiene products, as well as unnecessary hysterectomies . Women using intrauterine devices experience prolonged bleeding and infections due to unsanitary living conditions, yet no options for safe removal currently exist in Gaza, posing serious long-term risks to reproductive health and bodily integrity . Women have also been forced to undergo emergency hysterectomies to control excessive post- partum bleeding that could not be managed due to the lack of healthcare.

Reproductive violence in Gaza is therefore both biological and symbolic. It constitutes an assault on the present population and on the possibility of future generations. The objective of preventing Palestinian continuity is further evidenced by the sustained and disproportionate killing of children, who have consistently been the most targeted demographic group throughout the genocide. This killing is reinforced by an ideological framework that dehumanizes Palestinian women and children. Public statements by Israeli political and military officials have repeatedly framed the killing of women and children as militarily justified . Within this logic, women are targeted not for their actions, but for their reproductive capacity and their role in sustaining Palestinian continuity. Such rhetoric has informed and legitimized military operations in Gaza. Throughout the genocide, civilian spaces including schools, homes, and hospitals, have been deliberately targeted as a matter of state policy. These are precisely the spaces where women and children sought refuge. The systematic killing and endangerment of women and children is not a secondary effect of warfare but a central component of the broader genocidal strategy.

III. Starvation as a Weapon of Genocide

Another grave factor to the reproductive health of women in Gaza has been starvation. Prolonged malnutrition, combined with physical exhaustion, repeated displacement, and lack of healthcare infrastructure, have contributed to increased miscarriages, loss of amniotic fluid, and heightened maternal mortality . Numerous women have reported using prenatal supplements distributed by humanitarian organizations as meal substitutes for themselves or their families, or exchanging them for food and essential supplies. Breastfeeding has become increasingly difficult due to suppressed milk production associated with undernourishment, while infant formula remains largely inaccessible, placing newborns at heightened risk. Chronic stress and nutritional deprivation have also resulted in amenorrhea, fertility complications, and potential long-term reproductive harm.

For women in Gaza, starvation functions not only as a form of biological deprivation but as a structural assault on familial roles, social reproduction, and dignity. It undermines women’s capacity to fulfill caregiving responsibilities, destabilizes family life, and produces severe physical, reproductive, and psychological consequences. Women disproportionately experience the embodied impacts of hunger while simultaneously carrying the emotional labor associated with sustaining children and dependent family members.

Testimonies collected by MIFTAH from displaced women subjected to Israel’s forced starvation consistently begin with descriptions of pre-displacement life, including homes, employment, family routines, and domestic spaces. The loss of the home, particularly the kitchen, emerges as a recurrent theme, reflecting the erosion of women’s agency and identity. The destruction of homes and domestic spaces traditionally associated with women’s autonomy has contributed to a marked erosion of dignity and self-perception. Reported symptoms include anxiety, insomnia, hair loss, emotional dysregulation, and post-traumatic stress, with many women suppressing their own distress to maintain caregiving roles.

Repeated displacement has further exacerbated women’s vulnerability. Multiple forced relocations have resulted in the loss of personal possessions, kinship networks, and community-based support systems. Overcrowded shelters lack adequate privacy, sanitation, and safety, compelling women to manage childcare and food preparation under unsafe and degrading conditions. Everyday survival practices are thus shaped by constant exposure to risk and instability.

For women who serve as the primary caretakers of their families, providing for loved ones often comes at great personal risk. They are frequently reducing or skipping their own meals so that their children can eat, often continuing caregiving responsibilities despite severe physical exhaustion . In displacement, they prepare rudimentary meals using limited ingredients and improvised methods, such as cooking lentils over burning toxic materials like plastic. These practices function both as survival strategies and as efforts to maintain a sense of continuity and stability for children amid profound disruption. In these contexts, women disproportionately bear the responsibility of caring for sick, injured, or disabled family members, despite acute shortages of medical care, clean water, and shelter. Overcrowding and unsanitary conditions contribute to widespread illness, while attempts to obtain food or humanitarian assistance expose women and children to ongoing risks of injury or death.

Starvation has additionally intensified gendered pressures within households. Men’s inability to secure food or protection has been associated with increased psychological distress, thereby expanding women’s emotional and caregiving responsibilities. For women whose spouses have been killed, detained, or disappeared, starvation enforces sole provider roles under conditions that systematically undermine the possibility of survival.

Conclusion

MIFTAH has documented violations of sexual violence, reproductive violence, and starvation at various points during the genocide in Gaza. These violations, however, do not occur in isolation; they operate simultaneously, reinforcing and amplifying one another as part of a single system of control. Sexual violence isolates women from themselves and alienates them within their communities. Reproductive violence deliberately targets women because of their childbearing roles. Starvation acts as both a biological and psychological assault. Taken together, these crimes compound one another, deepening harm and undermining the survival of Palestinian women and their communities. A single woman may experience all three forms of violence, being violated in detention, displaced and denied healthcare, and later starved while unable to feed her children. Together, these crimes transform daily life into a persistent site of punishment. They attack the Palestinian female spirit, disrupt women’s societal roles, and, in doing so, fracture society across generations, making recovery increasingly difficult.

The failure to confront these violations reflects a long colonial history, in which the rhetoric of “saving women” was used to justify empire while violence against women perpetrated by colonial powers was silenced or dismissed. To resist normalization and impunity, these crimes must be recognized and addressed as mutually reinforcing acts of genocide. Understanding these violations as an interconnected system of oppression is essential to grasp their full impact on Palestinian society. These gendered crimes are not about women alone; they aim to dismantle the foundations of Palestinian life. Women are targeted not only as individuals but as mothers, community anchors, and bearers of generational continuity, while Palestinian society is systematically weakened and broken at its core.

Sources and References

Executive Summary

On 17 November 2025, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2803, establishing a new governance framework for Gaza. The resolution endorses U.S. President Donald Trump’s Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict (CPEGC) and the creation of a transitional international administration through a U.S.-led Board of Peace (BoP) and authorizes an International Stabilization Force (ISF). Rather than ensuring Palestinian sovereignty, this framework transfers control of Gaza’s civil administration, security, reconstruction, borders, and humanitarian aid to external actors, entrenching foreign oversight and further consolidating Israeli dominance over the occupied Palestinian territory.

This resolution raises grave legal and political concerns. It departs from foundational principles of international law and undermines the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination. By providing no mechanisms for accountability for Israel’s documented violations, offering no concrete safeguards for Palestinian rights, and presenting an undefined framework with no clear timeline or benchmarks, Resolution 2803 risks perpetuating systemic injustices, enabling a reconfigured form of occupation, and further entrenching the colonial-style control already in place.

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B’Tselem has completed an initial investigation into the IDF operation in the northern Gaza Strip. The investigation reveals that from the beginning of the operation until this afternoon (Monday October 4):

* 75 Palestinians have been killed by IDF forces. This includes 31 civilians who took no part in the fighting. Among the dead are 19 children, ages 17 and under.

* The IDF has completely demolished some 55 houses in the eastern neighborhoods of the Jabaliya refugee camp.

* Some 50 additional houses have been severely damaged.

* Some 50,000 people living in seven Palestinian neighborhoods in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and the Jabaliya refugee camp, are under complete siege. The water and electricity supplies have been cut off and food stocks are running out.

Daud Asliya, a 33 year-old resident of the a-Sica neighborhood in the eastern part of the Jabaliya refugee camp, told B’Tselem: “Since the invasion began we have been under siege and cannot leave the house. A tank is positioned about 50 meters from my house and is intensively shelling all the time…. We have been surviving on the water that I had stored in barrels, but this has almost run out. Yesterday almost all of our food ran out, except for some bread and tea…. The children are panicked and cry around the clock.”

The Qassam rocket attacks on Sderot carried out by Palestinian militants are illegal and constitute a war crime. However, the grief for the death of Israeli civilians cannot justify such extensive harm to Palestinian civilians uninvolved in the hostilities.

B’Tselem calls on all sides involved in hostilities to respect the principles of international humanitarian law and to avoid all targeting of civilians. In addition, B’Tselem calls on the IDF to:

* Avoid firing upon combatants if such firing is liable to cause widespread civilian casualties; * Avoid destruction of houses that is not necessitated by urgent military needs; * Ensure the continuous supply of water, food and medicine, in accordance with the High Court ruling regarding the IDF operation in Rafah in May 2004

B'Tselem's report deals with one of the primary, albeit lesser known, elements of Israel's restrictions on Palestinian movement in the Occupied Territories: the prohibition on Palestinian travel along certain roads in the West Bank.

The forbidden roads regime is a slippery policy, in part because its rules and regulations have never been set in writing: not in Knesset legislation, nor in decisions of the political echelon, nor in military orders, nor in press releases, nor even in road signs warning Palestinians that their travel on a road is prohibited or restricted. The regime is based on verbal orders given to soldiers, and in practices that the IDF has employed in the West Bank since the current intifada began.

The Forbidden Roads

B'Tselem's investigation indicates that the roads subject to the regime may be classified into three categories based on the severity of the restrictions on Palestinian travel on these roads: completely prohibited, partially prohibited, and restricted use roads.

Completely prohibited roads - The first category consists of roads for the exclusive use of Israeli citizens. This includes what the IDF calls "sterile roads" where the prohibition against Palestinian travel is explicit and obvious: Israel places a staffed checkpoint through which only Israeli vehicles are allowed to pass. This category also includes roads on which travel is not possible, or pointless, because the access roads leading to and from Palestinian villages are blocked.

Partially prohibited roads - The second category includes roads on which Palestinians are allowed to travel only if they have special permits issued by the Civil Administration, or if the identity cards of the driver and passengers indicate that they are residents of villages entirely dependent on the road on which they are traveling.

Restricted use roads - The third category includes roads on which Palestinian vehicles are allowed to travel without a special permit, but access to the roads is restricted by concrete blocks and other obstacles. In most cases, a driver who wants to get onto the road has to go to an intersection where soldiers check the vehicles and persons wanting to use the road.

The roads regime is enforced through a variety of means: an aggressive and discriminatory enforcement of the traffic laws against Palestinians only, prolonged delays of Palestinians, and confiscation of Palestinian vehicles with no due process. As a result, many Palestinian drivers refrain from using even those roads nominally open to them.

Issuance of Permits

The Civil Administration and the District Civil Liaison offices (DCLs) are responsible for providing Palestinians with the permits they require to travel on various roads. This bureaucracy lacks all transparency and acts in a patently arbitrary manner. There are no fixed criteria for granting or rejecting requests for permits, so the decision is based solely on the discretion of the DCL staff.

Also, notice of rejection is given verbally and without explanation. Requests by Palestinians who are considered "prevented for security reasons" are automatically denied. Only the General Security Service can remove this ground for rejection. This being the case, the GSS exploits the applicants' need for the permits and pressures them to serve as collaborators.

Disrupting All Aspects of Life

The forbidden roads regime has forced West Bank Palestinians to use long and winding routes rather than roads that lead directly from one town or district to another. Travel on these alternate roads disrupts all aspects of daily life in the West Bank, in such areas as the economy, health, and education, and gravely affects social and family life. In addition, Palestinians suffer the insult and humiliation that are part and parcel of the measures used by Israeli security forces to enforce the discriminatory roads regime.

Israel constructed an extensive road network in order to serve the Israeli settlements. To justify expropriating privately owned Palestinian land for these roads, Israel argued that the roads would also benefit the Palestinian population. Now these same roads are completely off-limits to Palestinians.

Israel contends that the restrictions on Palestinian travel along these roads result from imperative security considerations and not from racist motivations. Indeed, since the outbreak of the intifada, in September 2000, there has been an increase in the number of attacks by Palestinian organizations against Israeli civilians inside Israel and in the Occupied Territories. More than 600 Israeli civilians, including over 100 minors, have been killed. Attacks aimed at civilians violate fundamental legal and moral norms, and constitute war crimes in international humanitarian law. The attacks are unjustifiable, regardless of the circumstances. Not only is Israel entitled to take measures to defend its citizens against such attacks, it is required to do so. However, its actions must comply with Israeli and international law.

The roads regime infringes the Palestinians' right to freedom of movement and the right to equality. Israel is therefore in breach of fundamental principles of international law set forth in treaties to which Israel is party, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racism, and the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Discrimination-based separation � An Apartheid Practice

The roads regime, which is based on separation through discrimination, bears clear similarities to the racist apartheid regime that existed in South Africa until 1994. An individual's national origin determines their right to use various roads. This policy is based on a racist premise: that all Palestinians are security risks, and it is therefore justifiable to restrict their movement. Thus the policy indiscriminately harms the entire Palestinian population, in violation of their human rights and of international law.

B'Tselem demands that the government of Israel immediately end the forbidden roads regime and that it respect the right of Palestinians to freedom of movement on all roads inside the West Bank.

B'Tselem issues a new report today: The Forbidden Roads: The Discriminatory West Bank Road Regime. In its new report, B'Tselem finds that:

Israel restricts Palestinian travel on forty-one roads and sections of roads throughout the West Bank, totaling more than 700 kilometers of roadway (the report includes a detailed map of the Forbidden Roads Regime).

B'Tselem has divided the Forbidden Roads Regime into three categories of roads: "sterile roads" where Palestinian traffic is completely prohibited, roads where Palestinians require special permits, and roads with restricted access. The regime applies only to Palestinians. Israeli vehicles are allowed to travel freely along these roadways.

Permits for Palestinians to travel on restricted roads are issued at the sole discretion of the Israeli security establishment. Rejections are given verbally and without explanation. According to the head of the Civil Administration, Brig. Gen. Ilan Paz, "There are no definitive clear criteria for examining requests for a permit."

The Forbidden Roads Regime has been in operation for years, but the rules and regulations for its implementation have never been issued in writing. Thus, Israel frees itself of accountability and increases the arbitrariness with which it enforces the regime.

The Forbidden Roads Regime operates under the premise that every Palestinian is a security risk. Based on this premise, the Roads Regime violates the rights to freedom of movement and to equality of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank. Israel has an obligation to safeguard the lives of its citizens. But this obligation does not allow it to cause such harsh, extensive, indiscriminate, and prolonged harm to the local population.

By unlawfully discriminating against Palestinians based on their national origin, the Forbidden Roads Regime is reminiscent of the apartheid system that existed in South Africa. The regime violates fundamental principles of international law that are binding on the State of Israel.

B'Tselem demands that the government of Israel immediately end the Forbidden Roads Regime and that it

respect the right of Palestinians to move freely on all roads inside the West Bank.

Israeli human rights group B'Tselem issued a report on Friday elaborating on the amount of destruction caused by Israel’s military raids into Rafah over the past five days. The report also elaborated on the discrepancies between the actual destruction caused by the Israeli army’s wanton military activity and its own representation of what transpired, clearly demonstrating an Israeli attempt to downplay the amount of destruction, in particular with regard to home demolition.

According to B’Tselem’s research, at least 62 homes were demolished in the Brazil and a-Salam areas of Rafah between Thursday and Friday. Israeli army reports for the same period talk of only five buildings and hardly mention other types of destruction to local infra-structure or human casualties, focusing solely on perceived operational “success.”

A senior Israeli military officer claimed that the destruction seen in “Palestinian” footage had actually been destroyed over the course of the past three and a half years.

While talking to reporters at a briefing on Friday, Brig.-Gen. Shmuel Zakai, the Gaza division commander, described Palestinian reports of destruction in Rafah as a "well-oiled propaganda machine," adding that none of the residents were suffering from starvation.

During the hearing, the IDF claimed that medical supplies and ambulances are able to enter the camp. The IDF announced it would allow a truckload of medical equipment sent by Physicians for Human Rights Israel into the camp. The truck, which had been waiting for clearance since yesterday, entered Rafah immediately after the hearing. The judges announced their decision would be given at a later date.

Yesterday, Attorney General, Menachem Mazuz told the IDF to formulate an alternative to the plan prepared by the Southern Command for the expansion of the Philadelphi route. The original plan included the demolition of hundreds of houses along the route, which separates the Gaza Strip from Egypt. Mazuz demanded the IDF examine alternatives which would cause less harm to civilians in the area. Mazuz made these demands at a meeting he held with top IDF and Justice Ministry officials. He announced that he would convene additional meetings during the coming days to discuss the matter.

This morning, the press reported that IDF forces were pulling out of the Tel a-Sultan, Brazil and a-Salam neighborhoods of Rafah. B'Tselem continues to receive reports of humanitarian distress in the neighborhoods which remain under siege. As the IDF continues to restrict movement into and around the Rafah, some the following reports are based solely on telephone testimonies. The information provided has been verified as extensively as possible under the present circumstances. The reports are intended as examples and do not purport to provide the whole picture or the most grave events taking place in Rafah.

B'Tselem Research: IDF Destroys 62 Homes in the Brazil and a-Salam Neighborhoods

B'Tselem research reveals: Over the last two days, the IDF has demolished 62 homes in the Brazil and a-Salam neighborhoods in which 741 people lived. 44 of the homes demolished were in the Brazil neighborhood and 18 in a-Salam. These figures contradict the numbers reported by the IDF to the media. As Tel a-Sultan is still under siege, B'Tselem has been unable to ascertain how many homes the IDF demolished in the neighborhood.

An IDF bulldozer hit the house of the 'Azzam family in the Brazil neighborhood in the south of Rafah. The entire family was inside the house at the time. At around 12:30 P.M., 'Abd al-Fatah 'Azzam heard loud sounds of something being demolished nearby. The parents gathered their four children in the basement as the father reported to the Al-Mezan human rights organization and B'Tselem what was going on. Only after about three hours, did IDF soldiers allow the family to leave the house. The soldiers then blew it up.

A day earlier, an IDF bulldozer hit the home of the Bradawil family in the Tel a-Sultan neighborhood. Bilal Bardawil, age 21, told B'Tselem: “I heard the sound of a bulldozer breaking the outer door and slamming into the walls. The entire house was shaking and I thought that it was going to crash down on top of us. We heard loud knocks on the door and my mother went to open it. Dozens of soldiers were standing at the entrance. They took the ID cards of all the males in the house and demanded we expose our stomach and chest. Then they confiscated our cellular phones and gathered us all in one room. There were fourteen of us in a room of 12 meters and one window. A soldier was sitting on a chair, pointing his gun at us. The electricity was out and we didn't have any food or water. After a few hours we felt like we were going to pass out from the lack of oxygen due to the over crowding. My father who is diabetic looked weak. My mother asked the soldier to let her open the window and get food and water for the kids. He shouted at her and refused. After a few hours, a soldier came and brought water, bread and tomatoes. He allowed the children to go to the bathroom...” At 4:00 A.M., close to twenty hours after their arrival, the soldiers left the house.

Haidar Hasuna from Tel a-Sultan told B'Tselem today: “Since the army demolished our house two days ago, my family and I have been staying with our neighbors. The neighborhood's infrastructure is completely ruined. The water supply is down; the sewer system has been hit; the electricity, phone lines and roads are cut off and the asphalt has been “peeled” off the roads. The food in the houses has almost run out and all the shops are closed. Tel a-Sultan is completely surrounded. I can see tanks and bulldozers around 130 meters from my home. There are four ambulances there but they won't let them pass Now, I can see the ambulances turning around and going back.”

Hani Kashta from the a-Salam neighborhood, age 17, said yesterday: “I live about 400 meters from the Egyptian border. Ever since the tanks came into the neighborhood it's been impossible to leave the house. The streets are empty and all you hear is shooting and tanks. From my window, I can see two bulldozers uprooting our neighbor's olive trees. We're using water from our water tank because there's no water in the taps. Soon we'll run out. What little food is left will also run out soon. We're under tremendous mental pressure. We're scared. I go to high school in Rafah. I was supposed to take my final exams today.”

Woman in Labor Climbs Rope from 2nd Floor to Give Birth

On Tuesday, Asmaa Abu Ghali, resident of the Canada neighborhood in Rafah, had to climb down from the second floor on a rope on her way to give birth. Her husband, Sami Abu Ghali told B'Tselem yesterday over the phone: “She couldn't take the pain anymore and was about to give birth. I didn't know what to do. I called an ambulance, but everyone said it wouldn't be able to make it to us.”

Sami Abu Ghali spoke to nurses who live about 500 away who said they would help deliver the baby at their home. Abu Ghali said: “My wife couldn't leave the house and couldn't go down the stairs because the staircase is exposed to snipers. I had to get her down from the second floor using a rope. I got my 55-year-old mother down in the same way so she could go with her."

Abu Ghali lost contact with his wife and found out only the next day that she had given birth to a girl.

Yesterday, a Tel a-Sultan resident went into labor but could not leave her house to go to the hospital. Her sister called a local radio station and was put in touch with a physician who guided her through the labor live on air. The baby was born healthy.

Muhammad Yunis, a resident of Tel a-Sultan, told B'Tselem yesterday that his diabetic mother's insulin supply had run out on Wednesday. According to Yunis, his mother is in terrible condition since she had not taken the medicine. Yesterday morning, they got some insulin from neighbors whose son is also diabetic, but the supply had already run out by later in the day.

On Tuesday, we reported that a clinic in Tel a-Sultan had been surrounded by IDF soldiers who were preventing staff members from leaving. Later that day, staff members managed to leave the clinic on foot, leaving the ambulances behind. It was only this afternoon that coordination for the ambulances to leave was reached through the Red Cross and the Palestinian District Coordination Office. A Rafah municipality bulldozer removed the mounds of sand that had blocked the exit to the clinic's yard. At around 2:00 PM, IDF soldiers checked the ambulances and allowed them out of the complex.

Three Siblings Wounded by IDF Gunfire. Ambulance Sent to Evacuate them Sinks in IDF Dirt Mound

Yesterday at around 8:00 A.M, IDF soldiers ordered the Hassan family to leave their house in the Brazil neighborhood while waving white flags. As the family stepped onto the street, IDF soldiers fired at them from machine guns mounted on a tank. The Al-Mezan human rights organization reported that a 17-year-old daughter of the family was injured in the legs, her 15-year-old brother was hit by a bullet in the shoulder and a nine-year-old brother was lightly wounded by shrapnel.

An ambulance that was on its way to evacuate the three siblings sank in a dirt mound used by the IDF to block the road near the Bakker Mosque. B'Tselem field researchers spoke on the phone with the ambulance driver as he and the two volunteers who were with him tried to get the ambulance out and get to the wounded. Israeli soldiers in an IDF tank present at the scene were aiming their guns at the ambulance team at the time. The ambulance was eventually released at around 2:45 P.M., but did not manage to get to the Hassan family.

At present, the fate of the three injured siblings is unknown. The IDF Spokesperson claimed that the IDF had not cleared the way for the ambulance since its arrival had not been coordinated and that the passage of the ambulance was eventually made possible thanks to a tank that was present at the scene and cleared the roadblocks along the way.

Now's the Time to Act

The Attorney General has yet to finalize his decision.Write Mazuz (fax: +972-2-6274481) demanding he declares the planned house demolitions unlawful.

Following is a sample letter:

I write to express my deep concern at the government's plan to destroy hundreds of houses in the Rafah refugee camp, in order to widen the Philidelphi Route. This plan severely violates international humanitarian law, to which Israel is obligated. Israel, as the occupying force in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, is obliged to protect the local population and ensure its safety and welfare. While Israel may derogate from its obligations for military necessity, it must nevertheless balance military needs with the rights of the residents of the occupied territory. The planned demolitions will render homeless thousands of civilians who have not taken part in hostilities. I therefore urge you to determine that these planned demolitions run contrary to Israel's legal obligations.