The current escalation of violence and deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza comes amid the more than half-century-long occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem). The hostilities in Gaza since October 2023 have now killed over 30,000 Palestinians, approximately 70% of whom are women and children, and displaced nearly 1 million women. Further fighting in Rafah, where an estimated 1.5 million people are sheltering in dire conditions, risks a humanitarian disaster that must be averted. The constant bombardment of hospitals, combined with the Israeli government’s restrictions on fuel, water and aid, has led to the collapse of the healthcare system, putting mothers and their newborns at risk of significant physical and mental harm and violating women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. Since 7 October, 406 Palestinians have also been killed in the West Bank. Arrests are on the rise, with more people, including women, in administrative detention without trial or charge than in 30 years and concerning reports of Palestinian women and girls facing sexual violence in detention. UN experts have further expressed alarm regarding reports of arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killing, inhuman and degrading treatment, and targeting of Palestinian women, including peacebuilders, WHRDs, journalists and humanitarian workers, which could amount to grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. The Security Council must:

• Demand an immediate and sustained cessation of hostilities, and further demand all parties stop all unlawful attacks on civilians, civilian infrastructure and humanitarian actors, including by refraining from a full-scale military operation in Rafah, which would have devastating consequences for civilians. Call on all actors to uphold international human rights and humanitarian law, and all relevant Security Council resolutions, including on women, peace and security, and work towards a long-term and peaceful resolution to the conflict.
• Call on the Government of Israel to immediately and fully comply with the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice to protect Palestinians in Gaza from acts of genocide, including by refraining from acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, and create conditions to implement the provisional measures through an immediate ceasefire by all parties. All Member States must uphold their obligation to prevent genocide.
• Demand the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and treatment of all those captured, in accordance with international humanitarian law.
• Demand an immediate end to the forcible transfer of civilians in violation of international humanitarian law and an immediate end to all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of Palestinian territory, in line with Resolution 2334 (2016).
• Demand the lifting of the total blockade of Gaza, which is a violation of international law and amounts to collective punishment of a civilian population.
• Ensure immediate, safe, unhindered and expanded humanitarian access for the provision of basic services and life-saving relief assistance, including food, water, fuel, medical supplies and care, electricity and internet access, and safe access of humanitarian and medical personnel into Gaza, as required by Resolution 2720 (2023).
• Call on donors to fully fund the updated and extended Flash Appeal for the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to scale up sustainable, direct and flexible funding for national NGOs, particularly local women-led civil society organizations. Further, donors should urgently reverse recent decisions to withhold funds from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and support its continued and vital operations without interruption.
• Urge all parties to cooperate with independent, impartial, investigative mechanisms, including the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, to monitor, collect and verify evidence, and report on human rights violations and abuses, including all forms of GBV, committed by all parties on and since 7 October, and further, ensure that all justice and accountability efforts are human rights-based, survivor-centered and non-discriminatory, and designed and implemented in partnership with survivors.
• Demand that the rights of diverse Palestinian women, including WHRDs, peace activists and journalists, are upheld in line with international law, and that they are able to fully contribute to any de-escalation, ceasefire or other efforts to negotiate peace.