Al-Haq attended the CEDAW Committee’s first review of the State of Palestine on 11 July 2018 and closely followed the questions addressed to the delegation of the State party by members of the Committee as well as the official replies given by the State. Following the review, Al-Haq submitted a follow-up report, which noted that a number of the responses by the delegation of the State of Palestine were general in scope and did not clearly address some of the Committee’s questions. The report also noted that some of the answers provided by the State of Palestine during the review were inaccurate. Accordingly, Al-Haq presented its follow-up report to the Committee ahead of the adoption of its Concluding Observations on the first periodic review of the State of Palestine.

Friday, 29 June 2018

Since 30 March 2018, the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) has been systematically targeting protected Palestinian civilians during peaceful demonstrations in the Gaza Strip.¹ On 29 June 2018, the IOF continued to use excessive force against peaceful demonstrators participating in the Great Return March for the 14th consecutive week, killing two Palestinians by live ammunition and injuring 124.

On June 1, 2018, at approximately 6:45 pm, Razan Al-Najjar, 21, a volunteer paramedic with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) was shot in the chest by a live bullet fired by the Israel Occupying Force. At the time, Razan was on duty providing medical aid to injured Palestinians, at a distance of about 100 meters from the barbed wire fence, east of Khuza’a, east of Khan Younis. Footage released by the Palestinian Health Ministry shows al-Najjar as part of a group of paramedics approaching the fence, clearly distinguishable wearing medics white coats, with their hands raised in the air.[1]

Since Friday, 30 March 2018 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have held weekly demonstrations protesting Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza and reaffirming Palestinians’ right to return to land forcibly taken from them over the course of Israel’s 70-year occupation.[1]  For 11 weeks, men, women, and children have peacefully marched along the border areas between Gaza and Israel.[2]  The Israeli occupying forces have responded to these protests by deploying heavily armed soldiers and snipers to the fence, targeting unarmed Palestinians with live ammunition and tear gas.