After procrastination by the Israeli occupation, the "ceasefire" agreement in the Gaza Strip came into effect, after 15 months of the Israeli war of extermination that left more than 157 thousand dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11 thousand missing, amidst massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and elderly people, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.

In parallel with the genocide in Gaza, the Israeli occupation forces and settlers escalated their attacks in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, resulting in the martyrdom of 835 citizens and the injury of thousands of others, thousands of arrests, an increase in the demolition of homes and facilities, and military checkpoints that cut off the connections of cities, towns and villages, in addition to the racist laws enacted by the Israeli "Knesset" to oppress the Palestinians and the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

The Israeli aggression had repercussions on the Palestinian national economy, as the financial crisis of the Palestinian government deepened with the occupation government piracy of more Palestinian clearance funds, and the unemployment rate rose with the unemployment of thousands of workers who were working inside the 1948 territories, and the decline of economic activities in the West Bank.

Gaza Strip:

Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation forces have launched an aggression on the Gaza Strip, which has resulted in the death of at least 46,899 citizens, including 17,581 children and about 12,048 women, and the injury of more than 110,725 others, while about 11,000 are still missing under the rubble and on the roads, which has led to a 6% decrease in the population of the Strip by the end of 2024.

The Israeli occupation aggression has caused the displacement of more than 85% of the citizens of the Gaza Strip, i.e. more than 1.93 million citizens out of 2.2 million, from their homes after their destruction. In addition, about 100 thousand citizens have left the Strip since the beginning of the aggression.

About 1.6 million citizens of the Gaza Strip currently live in shelters and tents that lack the minimum requirements for human life, amidst massive and unprecedented destruction of infrastructure and citizens’ property. Estimates indicate that more than 80% of the Gaza Strip is destroyed.

The closure of all crossings in the Gaza Strip and the imposition of a tight blockade since the beginning of the aggression, caused a severe shortage of food, water, medicine and fuel supplies, which led to a famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.

Now, 96% of the population of the Gaza Strip (2.2 million people) are facing high levels of acute food insecurity until September 2024, including more than 49,000 pregnant women. More than 495,000 citizens (22% of the population) are facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity (Phase 5), including 11,000 pregnant women, and about 3,500 children are at risk of death due to malnutrition and food shortages.

The aggression prevented 788,000 students in the Gaza Strip from attending their schools and universities for the second year in a row, including more than 58,000 who were supposed to join the first grade in the 2024-2025 academic year, in addition to 39,000 who did not take the high school exam.

Since the beginning of the aggression until the end of September 2024, more than 77 government schools were completely destroyed, while 191 schools were bombed and vandalized, including 126 government schools and 65 schools affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). More than 51 university buildings were completely destroyed, 57 buildings were partially destroyed, and more than 20 universities were severely damaged.

Only 14 hospitals out of 36 are operating in the Gaza Strip, partially, amid a severe shortage of equipment, medical staff and medical supplies, which has caused the spread of diseases and prevented citizens from accessing emergency medical services.

During its aggression, the Israeli occupation completely destroyed 815 mosques, partially destroyed 151 mosques, and completely destroyed 19 cemeteries. It violated their sanctity by attacking them, digging up their graves, and removing the bodies. It also targeted and destroyed 3 churches in Gaza City.

Palestinian culture lost 44 writers, artists and activists in the field of culture who were martyred during the first four months of the aggression, and 32 institutions, centers and theaters were either partially or completely destroyed as a result of the bombing, in addition to damage to 12 museums, 9 public libraries, and 8 publishing houses and printing presses.

The occupation forces demolished about 195 historical buildings, most of which are located in Gaza City, partially or completely. Nine heritage sites and 10 historical mosques and churches that form part of the memory of the Strip were damaged. The occupation forces deliberately destroyed public squares and demolished monuments and artworks in them, in addition to destroying 27 artistic murals in public places and along the beach of Gaza City.

All economic activities in the Gaza Strip witnessed a complete collapse from the beginning of the aggression until the end of 2024, which led to a sharp and unprecedented contraction in the gross domestic product in the Gaza Strip by more than 82%, accompanied by an increase in the unemployment rate to 80%.

West Bank including Jerusalem:

In the West Bank, during the aggression on the Gaza Strip, from October 7, 2023 until the end of 2024, about 835 citizens were killed, including 173 children, and 6,450 others were injured, as a result of attacks by the Israeli occupation forces and settlers.

After October 7 and until the end of 2024, the occupation and its settlers carried out 19,700 attacks against citizens and their property, including 3,630 attacks carried out by settlers, which resulted in the martyrdom of 22 citizens and led to the uprooting, destruction, damage and poisoning of 19,000 trees.

During the same period, the occupation forces seized 53 thousand dunams according to various declarations, including “state lands,” “seizure orders,” and “nature reserves,” and established 13 “buffer zones” around the settlements.

Since the beginning of the aggression until the end of 2024, the process of studying (approving and depositing) 23 thousand new colonial units in the West Bank settlements, including Jerusalem, was carried out, while the settlers established 57 new colonial outposts, and the occupation authorities began settling the status (legalizing) of 13 other colonial outposts.

The same period witnessed a noticeable increase in the demolition of citizens’ homes, as the occupation forces demolished 1,022 residential and agricultural facilities during the same period, and delivered 1,167 demolition and construction cessation notices.

Detainees:

Since October 7, 2023, the occupation prison administration has escalated its measures against male and female detainees and doubled the repressive measures of severe beatings and insults that degrade their dignity, and seized their achievements that were made as a result of long years of struggle in the occupation prisons, and reduced the quantity and quality of food, and deprived them of visits, and practiced against them all kinds of torture, oppression and humiliation, which reached the point of sexual harassment and assault against some of them.

The occupation forces carried out arrest operations that included more than 25 thousand citizens, including approximately 14,300 detainees from the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the others from the Gaza Strip.

The occupation used administrative detention as a punitive and retaliatory policy against large numbers of detainees. The number of those who were transferred or had their administrative detention renewed once or several times is estimated at about 10,000 detainees.

During the same period, 54 detainees were martyred in the occupation prisons, 35 of whom were detainees from the Gaza Strip, and the occupation is still holding their bodies.

The prisoners’ institutions documented the arrest of 450 women, girls, university students, and freed female prisoners, 89 of whom are still being held by the occupation in its prisons, in addition to the arrest of 1,065 children, nearly 700 of whom have been detained since the beginning of 2024.

The occupation government informed the "Israeli Supreme Court" that the number of Gazans detained in its prisons is 3,636, and that 529 Gazans in Israeli prisons are prevented from meeting with lawyers.

Financial crisis:

Since the beginning of the occupation's aggression on the Gaza Strip, Israel has begun to deduct the equivalent of the Palestinian government's expenses in the Gaza Strip from the clearance funds, in addition to legislating a new law in the Knesset with new deductions under the item of compensating the families of individuals killed or injured in attacks carried out by Palestinians. This is in addition to previous deductions equivalent to the government's payments to the families of martyrs, the wounded and detainees, in addition to other illegal deductions.

The illegal deductions reached 70% of the total clearing value, which deepened the financial crisis of the Palestinian National Authority and affected its ability to fulfill its obligations towards its citizens.

For the third year in a row, the government has been unable to fulfill its obligations towards public sector employees, and is paying part of their monthly salaries.

The education sector has also witnessed disturbances in the past two academic years, as a result of which students did not attend their school seats regularly, due to the government’s inability to fulfill its obligations towards the employees of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, while the health sector is on the verge of collapse, due to the severe shortage of medicines and medical supplies, as there are 120 types of medicines that are not available in the ministry, including 20 oncology medicines, and 420 types of medical supplies that have zero stock in the ministry, including 170 specialized types, which affected the provision of services to citizens, through the long waiting list for operations in government hospitals, while the ministry transfers emergency operations to private or civil hospitals.

Palestine is facing an economic, social, humanitarian, environmental, health, educational and food catastrophe that has led to the shrinkage of the productive base and the distortion of the economic structure of Palestine. By the end of 2024, estimates indicate that the unprecedented sharp contraction in the GDP in the Gaza Strip will continue by more than 82%, accompanied by an increase in the unemployment rate to 80%.

This decline extended to the West Bank economy by more than 19%, with the unemployment rate rising to 35%. In sum, this led to a decline in the Palestinian economy by 28%, accompanied by an increase in the unemployment rate to reach 51%.

Racist laws:

During the aggression period, the occupation authorities enacted dozens of laws supporting the occupation, settlement, racial discrimination, and restrictions on freedom of expression, public freedoms, and political activity, which had a major impact on our people, whether in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, or the territories of 1948.

Among the most prominent of these racist laws: On October 28, 2024, the Knesset General Assembly approved, by a majority of votes from the coalition and the Zionist opposition blocs, two draft laws that prohibit the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in areas under so-called “Israeli sovereignty,” meaning specifically occupied East Jerusalem and the towns and camps that the Israeli occupation has annexed to its areas of influence, such as the Shuafat and Qalandia refugee camps. According to the law, the agency’s office in East Jerusalem will be closed, and the diplomatic status granted to workers in United Nations organizations will be revoked.

The law extending the validity of the temporary law preventing Palestinian family reunification for an additional year, which was passed by the Knesset on March 5, 2024, a decision unilaterally rejecting recognition of a Palestinian state, which was passed by the Knesset on February 22, 2024, and a law allowing the definition of a person who is not a citizen or resident as a “terrorist activist” subject to the provisions of the “Anti-Terrorism Law,” which was passed by the Knesset on January 17, 2024.

On July 17, 2024, the Knesset General Assembly adopted a political decision that “categorically” rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state anywhere in historical Palestine, or according to the text of the decision, “in the Land of Israel” and “west of the Jordan River.”

On May 22, 2024, the Knesset General Assembly approved, by a majority vote, in a preliminary reading, a draft law that stipulates the annexation of settlements built on citizens’ lands south of the city of Hebron to the so-called “Negev Development Authority,” which is one of the “annexation laws” projects.

On October 29, 2024, the Knesset General Assembly approved, by a majority of votes from the Zionist coalition and opposition, in the final reading, a government law prohibiting the opening of diplomatic missions in occupied East Jerusalem, aimed at serving the Palestinians, and without the approval of the Israeli government.

Palestinians of 1948

Since the beginning of the occupation's aggression on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, the pace of its restrictions on the Palestinians of 1948 has increased by all means, including suppression of freedoms, incitement, threats, persecution, investigation, arrest, and abuse.

In the first weeks of the start of its aggression, the Israeli government declared a state of general emergency, which included the approval of many laws and amendments to the arrest instructions and the prevention of demonstrations, in order to terrorize the Palestinians inside the 1948 territories and tighten the grip on them.

The Israeli Public Prosecution has cancelled the requirement for the approval of the Attorney General or one of his deputies to carry out an arrest on charges of incitement, as was the practice before the war. The emergency regulations allow for strict measures to be taken against detainees, including extending the detention of detainees for long periods, and preventing them from meeting their lawyers for a period that may reach 90 days. In addition, the Israeli police announced instructions stipulating that approval for the organisation of demonstrations in Palestinian cities and towns within the 1948 territories is prohibited.

A report prepared by Adalah, in cooperation with the Arab Emergency Committee, documented 251 cases of arrest and investigation, or “warning conversations,” during the first five weeks of the aggression, most of which were within the framework of freedom of expression, and 76 indictments were filed in connection with the events.

A report published by the Joint Authority of Student Blocs, which operates under the umbrella of the Arab Emergency Committee, stated that more than 100 male and female students in academic institutions were transferred to “obedience committees,” in addition to hundreds of publications inciting against students and attacks on their residences.

The occupation has developed a strict “legal” and executive system to impose control over the Internet, which has led to blatant violations of digital rights and created a “digital terror” that has prompted users to reduce their expression of opinions, in addition to the increase in digital attacks, especially those with a political and national background after the war on Gaza, such as “identity impersonation,” “phishing,” and “harassment and abuse.” This reflects a state of self-censorship and abstention from digital activity that has reached 70% of young people in the 1948 territories, which reduces the use of the Internet as a tool for public activity.

The occupation targeted leaders inside the 1948 territories, as the Israeli authorities arrested on November 9 the head of the Higher Follow-up Committee for Arab Citizens in the 1948 territories, Muhammad Baraka, and former Knesset members from the National Democratic Assembly party.

Since the beginning of the war, the studios of Israeli television channels have turned into an open and frenzied incitement front calling for more killing, destruction and revenge on a daily basis. These media outlets have marginalized any voice calling for an end to the war, having any humanitarian position or calling for a political solution rather than a military solution.

Leadership moves in international forums to stop the aggression

Since the first day of the aggression, the Palestinian leadership has made diplomatic and legal efforts in all international and Arab forums to stop the genocide to which our people are being subjected in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Jerusalem.

The State of Palestine's mission to the United Nations worked to crystallize three goals through which it united the Arab and Islamic groups, the Non-Aligned Movement, and other groups: a ceasefire, the entry of aid to all parts of the Gaza Strip, and the cessation of forced displacement within the Gaza Strip and the evacuation of the Strip of Palestinian citizens.

Following the extraordinary joint Arab and Islamic summit held in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on November 11, 2023, the Arab-Islamic Ministerial Committee was formed and tasked with initiating immediate international action on behalf of all member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the League of Arab States, to formulate an international position to stop the war on Gaza, and to pressure for the launch of a serious and real political process to achieve permanent and comprehensive peace in accordance with the approved international references.

Since its assignment, the Committee has made numerous visits to the capitals of the permanent members of the Security Council and European capitals, and held meetings with heads of state and government and foreign ministers, to mobilize an international position to stop the war on Gaza, protect civilians, maintain the delivery of sufficient and sustainable humanitarian aid to all parts of the Strip, and take effective steps to implement the two-state solution.

The Security Council was repeatedly approached to issue a resolution to stop the aggression, and the veto was used on several resolutions, while 4 resolutions were adopted, the last of which was Resolution 2735, which was adopted in July 2024, but it was not implemented due to the intransigence of the occupation government and its insistence on continuing the genocide it is committing in the Strip.

On the level of the State of Palestine’s movement at the level of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, the latter issued arrest warrants on November 21, 2024 against the Prime Minister of the occupation, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former Minister of Defense, Yoav Galant, after the court’s judges found “reasonable grounds to believe that they are responsible for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

On July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion on the judicial repercussions of Israeli practices and their impact on the occupied territories, which confirmed that Israel must stop the occupation and end its illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Following the advisory opinion, the UN General Assembly adopted in September 2024, by a majority vote, a resolution demanding that Israel end its “illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territory” within 12 months.

From Washington to New York, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Madrid, Brussels, Stockholm, Oslo, and dozens of capitals and cities around the world, thousands of demonstrations, sit-ins, and events were organized in the main streets and squares, in universities and schools, to denounce the war of extermination that the Israeli occupation has been waging against our people since October 7, and to support Palestine and its just cause. In parallel with the unprecedented popular movement that has been escalating day after day, in response to the massacres committed by the occupation against our people, international solidarity has emerged in filing lawsuits against the occupation and its officials in the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, severing diplomatic relations with the occupation regime, and leading to a series of recognitions of the State of Palestine.

On 29 December 2023, South Africa filed a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice, in coordination with the State of Palestine, regarding Israel’s commission of genocide in Palestine. South Africa submitted to the court an 84-page dossier, in which it collected evidence of Israel’s killing of thousands of citizens in the Gaza Strip, and the creation of conditions “conducive to their physical destruction,” which constitutes the crime of “genocide” against them.

The Court issued a number of emergency orders requiring Israel to take all measures to prevent acts prohibited by the Genocide Convention, and to take steps to ensure that the urgent humanitarian needs of the Gaza Strip are met immediately.

Regarding the efforts to obtain full membership for the State of Palestine in the United Nations, 14 members of the UN Security Council voted to accept full membership for the State of Palestine, but the United States obstructed these efforts by using its veto power.

On May 10, the General Assembly adopted a resolution by 143 votes to 9, stating that the State of Palestine is eligible for full membership in the United Nations, in accordance with Article 4 of the UN Charter, which states that it “should therefore be admitted as a Member” of the organization.

The resolution recommends that the Security Council reconsider this issue positively, and under the resolution the State of Palestine was given a set of powers that bring it closer to full membership, including the seat of the State of Palestine in the Assembly according to the alphabetical order with the full member states and the submission of draft resolutions and points of order.

In terms of gaining more recognition of the State of Palestine, Norway, Ireland and Spain simultaneously recognized the State of Palestine, and the decision entered into force on May 28, 2024. They were followed by Slovenia and Armenia, which recognized the State of Palestine in June 2024, bringing the number of countries recognizing the State of Palestine to 149 countries out of 193 member states of the United Nations General Assembly.