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PRESS RELEASE Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD) For immediate release · Geneva / Ramallah, 28 September 2026 |
HRC63 SIDE EVENT · GENEVA · 28 SEPTEMBER 2026
At a side event on the margins of the 63rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, PWWSD Launches New Report on the Gendered Impacts of Israel's Settlement Regime in the West Bank
Speaking at a side event on the margins of the 63rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, PWWSD warned that settlement expansion, settler violence, movement restrictions and shrinking civic space form a single system. That system is steadily cutting Palestinian women off from health care, safety and protection.
Speakers at the side event “Women’s Rights Under Attack: Health, Safety & Accountability in Gaza & the West Bank”, Geneva, 28 September 2026.
The Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD) took part today in the side event “Women’s Rights Under Attack: Health, Safety & Accountability in Gaza & the West Bank.” The event was organized by MIFTAH – The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, with the participation of PWWSD and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights. It took place on Monday, 28 September 2026, in Geneva, alongside the 63rd session of the UN Human Rights Council.
PWWSD was represented by Amal Khreishe, General Director, and Shahd Khader, Fundraising and Development Officer. They delivered PWWSD’s intervention, “Impacts of Israel’s Settlement Regime on Palestinian Women’s Health,” covering the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
During its participation, PWWSD officially launched its new policy and advocacy report, Gendered Impacts of Israel’s Settlement Regime in the West Bank: Settler Violence, Movement Restrictions, Socioeconomic Harm and Restrictions on Women’s Civic Space, 2022–2026. The report is addressed to the CEDAW Committee, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, and relevant UN agencies and human rights mechanisms. It documents how the components of the settlement regime reinforce one another and produce distinct, compounding harms for Palestinian women and girls.
Health care out of reach
PWWSD showed that maternal and reproductive care in the West Bank is increasingly “available on paper, out of reach in practice.” As of December 2025, 925 movement obstacles restrict the movement of 3.4 million Palestinians, 43% above the twenty-year average. Nearly 60% of these obstacles are checkpoints and road gates. Obstructed access featured in 84% of the 233 attacks on health care that WHO recorded in the West Bank in 2025. The share of patient permit applications for care in East Jerusalem and Israel that were denied or left pending doubled from 18% in 2022 to 36% in 2025. Only 42% of West Bank health facilities are fully operational. More than 230,000 women and girls, among them some 14,800 pregnant women, have limited or no access to reproductive health services.
Violence that reaches into women’s homes
Between January and August 2026, more than 1,600 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage were recorded across 275 communities, an average of 6.7 attacks a day. Twenty-five Palestinians have been killed by settlers so far this year, the highest toll on record. More than 70% of displaced households interviewed named threats to women and children, particularly sexualised violence, as the decisive reason for leaving their homes. Documented patterns include threats of rape, women being stalked on their way to latrines, and intrusions into homes and bedrooms, at times in the presence of Israeli forces who did not intervene.
Panel discussion during the side event at the United Nations in Geneva.
Displacement and the erosion of women’s autonomy
Among women in forcibly transferred households, 87% lost all sources of income, from dairy production to embroidery, and 90% reported increased psychological stress and trauma. PWWSD described how displacement pushes families into gendered coping strategies. These include restricting women’s movement and sending women and children away. At least six cases have been documented of marriages arranged for girls aged 15 to 17, framed as “protection.”
Silencing those who respond
PWWSD stressed that restrictions on Palestinian women-led organisations, health providers and women human rights defenders are themselves part of the harm. These restrictions include “terrorist” designations, funding and registration curbs, detention and harassment. They dismantle the services, documentation, confidential referral pathways and legal accompaniment through which women obtain protection and reach accountability mechanisms.
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“Settlement expansion, settler violence and movement restrictions are not separate issues. They are one system, and Palestinian women are paying its price with their health, their safety and their livelihoods. Our report puts evidence before the international community that it can no longer ignore.” — Amal Khreishe, General Director, PWWSD |
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“Behind every figure is a woman who could not reach a hospital, a mother who gave birth on the road to a checkpoint, a family forced from its land. The right to health cannot be separated from the right to live free from occupation and violence.” — Shahd Khader, Fundraising and Development Officer, PWWSD |
Recommendations
PWWSD presented recommendations grounded in international law, including CEDAW, the ICESCR, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinions of 2004 and 2024.
It called on Israel, as the occupying power, to end settlement expansion and forcible transfer, and to prevent, investigate and punish settler violence. Israel must also guarantee safe passage for patients, ambulances, health workers and mobile clinics.
It urged third States to uphold their ICJ-affirmed duties of non-recognition and non-assistance, and to review arms transfers. It also asked them to shield Palestinian civil society from political funding and registration curbs, and to provide direct, flexible, multi-year funding to women’s rights and health organisations.
PWWSD asked UN agencies to scale up mobile clinics, safe-motherhood centres, confidential GBV referral and mental health care for women, and to strengthen sex-disaggregated monitoring. Finally, it called on the Palestinian Authority to adopt and fund an updated Women, Peace and Security National Action Plan, and to ensure the continuity of reproductive health services in closure-affected communities.
Diplomats and representatives of international organisations and civil society attended the side event.
A joint call for accountability
Maram Zatara of MIFTAH presented an analytical report on the gendered impact of the genocide on women’s health in the Gaza Strip. Issam Younis of Al Mezan Center for Human Rights examined the legal context and violations under international law. Dr. Tahreer Al Araj, head of MIFTAH, moderated the session.
The discussions covered three main areas: the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive health services, the rising risks of gender-based violence amid displacement and the collapse of protective environments, and the failure to uphold the Fourth Geneva Convention. The participating organisations called for robust international pressure and for legal accountability to be enforced through international bodies. They also called for Palestinian women to be placed at the centre of humanitarian response and recovery planning.
The side event drew strong engagement from State delegations and civil society.
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Access the materials Full report: Gendered Impacts of Israel’s Settlement Regime in the West Bank PWWSD film for HRC63: The land is taken...Women pay the price All PWWSD publications: PWWSD Publications | PWWSD |
About PWWSD
The Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD) is a Palestinian feminist civil society organization working to advance women’s rights, gender equality and social justice. It does so through protection services, economic empowerment, advocacy and engagement with national and international accountability mechanisms across the occupied Palestinian territory.
Media contact: pwwsd@pwwsd.org | www.pwwsd.org
