NGO Action News – 16 October 2025 

This newsletter informs about recent and upcoming activities of Civil Society Organizations working on the question of Palestine. The Committee and the Division for Palestinian Rights of the UN Secretariat provide the information “as is” without warranty of any kind, and do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, or reliability of the information contained in the websites linked in the newsletter. 

Middle East 

• On 13 October, Al Mezan issued a press release welcoming the announcement of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, but stated that an end to hostilities did not automatically mean an end to what it considers to be Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The NGO added that Israel has deliberately created conditions unfit for life and calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, in whole or in part. 

• On 12 October, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights published an article condemning the armed attacks carried out by Israeli settlers against Palestinian Farmers living near Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, coinciding with the olive harvest season. According to the NGO, these assaults are part of the ongoing, Israeli government-backed settler violence that has escalated across the entire West Bank and aiming at depopulating the areas from their Palestinian residents to open the way for an unlawful settlement expansion. 

• On 10 October, 7amleh informed it has sent, in partnership with other organizations, a letter to Microsoft calling for accountability and transparency following recent reporting on Microsoft’s role in facilitating Palestinian human rights violations via services provided to the Israeli military. The letters reads that Microsoft must suspend all of its business activities and terminate relationships with the Israeli military and other government bodies where there is evidence that such business activities are contributing to grave human rights abuses and international war crimes. Human Rights Watch published an article on this issue as well. 

• On 9 October, BADIL issued a statement supporting UNRWA and calling on EU members to support the renewal of UNRWA’s mandate and provide full, unconditional political and financial support to the Agency. The NGO also called for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to be dismantled.  

Africa, Asia and Europe 

• On 9 October, Amnesty International stated that the announced ceasefire in Gaza must be a pathway to ending Israel’s unlawful occupation, apartheid and genocide. The NGO called for a full cessation of hostilities and a total lifting of the blockade, as well as the withdrawal of the Israeli military from Gaza, and urgent action to rebuild and repair critical infrastructure across the Gaza Strip. Many organizations, including the Norwegian Refugee Council and Association France Palestine Solidarité (in French), also published statements on this issue. 

• On 8 October, the Palestinian Return Centre organized the seminar “Ending the Gaza Genocide”, on the margins of the 60th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. According to the NGO, the panel provided a legal and humanitarian analysis, exposing systematic strategies of famine engineering and the destruction of life-sustaining systems in Gaza, while offering insights into mechanisms of international accountability. The speakers stressed that what was unfolding in Gaza was not merely war, but a fully-fledged genocide project that demanded urgent and decisive international action. 

North America 

• On 31 October, Columbia University Center for Palestine Studies will organize the panel discussion “Palestinian Knowledge Practices”, in New York and online. According to the organizers, this forum will bring together Palestinian thinkers who confront the crisis of continuity facing history today, through their diverse scholarly and artistic activities. 

• On 13 October, the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) published the webinar “Accountability After Genocide and the Emerging Left-Right Consensus on Israel in America”. Ahmed Moor, FMEP Fellow, spoke with Matt Duss, Executive Vice-President at the Center for International Policy and former foreign policy advisor to US Senator Bernie Sanders. Panelists discussed, according to the NGO, the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the new ceasefire, changes in public assessments of Israel’s standing in the U.S. and political relationships with Israel. 

United Nations 

• On 15 October, Secretary-General António Guterres stated, via his Spokesperson, that he welcomed the continued implementation of the ceasefire in Gaza, based on the proposal by U.S. President Trump, including the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees. With the ceasefire in effect, the people of Gaza and Israel are beginning to glimpse the fragile hope of calm after months of devastation, he added, while highlighting that these efforts marked an essential first step in stabilizing conditions and restoring basic human dignity, but the needs remained vast, and sustained access and funding were critical. The Secretary-General called on all parties to consolidate the ceasefire and transform it into lasting peace. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher issued a statement on this issue as well, praising the endorsement of the U.S. peace plan at an international summit in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, on 13 October, adding that the UN had set out a 60-day plan for a massive surge in lifesaving aid. 

• On 14 October, several UN agencies and humanitarian organizations stated that around $70 billion will be needed to reconstruct Gaza and make it safe after two years of war, adding that far too little aid continued to reach desperate Palestinians. UNDP stated that destruction across Gaza “is now in the region of 84%. In certain parts of Gaza, like in Gaza City, it’s even up to 92%”. 

• On 9 October, the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People published the monthly bulletin “Action by UN System Relevant to the Question of Palestine” covering the month of September 2025. The bulletin highlights the release of the Committee’s Annual Report; the latest report of UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, published on 16 September and alleging that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip; and the resumption of the High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution during the 80th session of the UN General Assembly.