‘Occupation Must End’, Secretary-General Demands at Opening of Palestinian Rights Committee Session

'Occupation Must End', Secretary-General Demands at Opening of Palestinian Rights Committee Session

As the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People began its work for 2026, humanitarian organizations in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territory drew attention to dangerous restrictions on their work.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres was among the many speakers today who stressed that "the occupation must end". Highlighting the recently published tender by Israel for 3,401 housing units in the E1 Area, he warned: "If carried forward, it would sever the northern and southern West Bank, undermine territorial contiguity and strike a severe blow to the viability of a two-State solution."

The international community must support United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), he continued, condemning the adoption by the Israeli Parliament of laws that further impede the Agency's ability to operate. About Israeli authorities' actions to demolish the UNRWA Sheikh Jarrah compound in occupied East Jerusalem, he said: "Let me be clear: UNRWA premises are United Nations premises."

Palestine Relief Agency Appeals for Protection, Citing Facility Destruction

Michael Contet, Director of the New York Office of UNRWA, described the near-total destruction of the Agency's compound in occupied East Jerusalem on 25 January, carried out by Israeli authorities using bulldozers. On that occasion, he added, a local Israeli official called for the annihilation of UNRWA staff. Actions against the Agency also include "a large-scale dis- and misinformation campaign", including the repetition of allegations that have already been proven wrong or remain unsubstantiated.

Though 385 staffers have been killed and many of its installations destroyed, some 11,000 UNRWA personnel in Gaza still remain hard at work. They provide healthcare to almost 100,000 Palestinians weekly in Gaza and in-person learning to more than 66,000 students across 73 UNRWA shelters.

"Regrettably, months after the ceasefire was announced, our work continues to be hindered by restrictions on humanitarian access on the ground and bureaucratic hurdles," he said. He highlighted four appeals from his agency: lift Israeli restrictions on the Agency's operations in the occupied Palestinian territory; protect the rights of Palestine refugees; support UNRWA's role in implementing Security Council resolution 2803 (2025), the New York Declaration and the Arab-Islamic Early Recovery, Reconstruction and Development Plan for Gaza; and secure urgent and adequate funding to sustain the Agency's operations.

Humanitarian Organizations Say Israeli Restrictions Are Cutting Aid to Gaza

Itay Epshtain, Special Adviser with the Norwegian Refugee Council, said that, on 30 December 2025, 37 international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including his, were notified that their registration with Israel would expire within 60 days, without substantive assessment of pending applications or guidance on compliance. This deregistration is already producing measurable harm, he said. Since early January, organizations without renewed Israeli registration have been denied staff rotations in and out of Gaza. As a result, relief programmes have been interrupted and supply chains have been cut.

"This is not a marginal disruption," he stressed, because international NGOs implement a substantial proportion of shelter, health water, food security, protection and education activities. "The Palestinian population bears the cost" of this disruption in drastic reduction of assistance, but these restrictions also have legal and political significance, he pointed out. "Subordinating humanitarian presence through Israeli administrative discretion" risks transforming relief itself into an "instrument of subjugation".

Further, international NGOs are legally unable to comply with these restrictions due to binding data protection and privacy laws, he pointed out. Compliance would expose organizations to regulatory sanctions "and serious protection risk for staff and beneficiaries". Refusal is therefore a legal obligation.

Deregistration of international NGOs is not merely administrative, it is part of a wider architecture of domination over the Palestinian people. Describing this as a political assault, he warned that if such practices are normalized, they will not be confined to Palestine, they will become part of the "global repertoire of humanitarian restrictions".

Sam Zarifi, Executive Director of Physicians for Human Rights, also echoed the urgent need to push back against the restrictions on humanitarian organizations. The international community must step up to protect healthcare workers and facilities. In particular, he highlighted the "reproductive violence" perpetrated by Israel. The damage to Gaza's health infrastructure, combined with restrictions on food and medical supplies - including baby formula - have created an environment in which "the fundamental biological processes of reproduction and survival have been systematically degraded", he said. These harms were foreseeable and resulted in suffering and death which was entirely avoidable.

Palestine's Observer Urges Permanent Ceasefire

The Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine lamented the 72,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza "not counting those still under the rubble", the displacement of more than 40,000 people in the West Bank, "particularly from refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarm" and the violence perpetrated by "terrorist settlers". Only two days ago the Israeli occupying forces breached the ceasefire and killed 31 Palestinian civilians, including children and women, in one single day, he noted. "But, our people are resisting" and fighting for their rights, he said.

Welcoming the ceasefire, he underscored that it must be permanent and full. "Israel should not continue to go and kill our people as they wish," he said. Humanitarians, including UNRWA should be allowed to continue their life-saving work. His Government has requested 200,000 temporary housing units "to help our people stay on our land" and not get pushed out of the Gaza Strip as the current Israeli government is trying to do - these must be provided immediately.

Further, "we want to see the beginning of the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip", he said. Israel has confessed its aims to transform the Yellow Line into a border and partition and annex Gaza. But, "Gaza is not a piece of land that is hanging in the air for anyone to grab it", he said. The West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip constitute a single territorial unit and the State of Palestine must become a full member of the United Nations.

The adoption of the New York Declaration and efforts towards implementing the two-State solution mark a historic turning point, echoed Coly Seck (Senegal), who was unanimously re-elected as Chair - his country has chaired this Committee for 50 years. The Committee did not begin its work in October 2023, he noted; it has been responding to decades of injustice. The fact that "this Committee is still alive and being heard at the United Nations is thanks to the support of its members and observers", he added. "Peace in Palestine is too serious an issue for the Committee to halt its work without achieving tangible results," he said.

Committee Elects Bureau, Adopts Programme of Work

In other business, the Committee approved Chile's request to become a member, pending final approval by the General Assembly. Chile's representative said that the country hosts "the largest Palestinian diaspora outside the Arab world", with tens of thousands of people who are fully integrated into Chile's cultural and social life. This strong cultural link with the Palestinian people creates a particular responsibility for his country, he said, expressing interest in hosting multilateral events focused on Palestinian rights and on strengthening respect for international law.

The Committee also adopted its programme of work for 2026. Ernesto Soberón Guzmán (Cuba), Umar Hadi (Indonesia), Ahmad Faisal Muhamad (Malaysia), Pendapala Naanda (Namibia) and Jaime Hermida Castillo (Nicaragua) were elected as Vice-Chairs.

Elected Vice-Chairs also took the floor today, with Nicaragua's delegate condemning "the systematic campaign of bullying and harassment that Israel has undertaken against UNRWA" while Cuba's speaker warned against "irresponsible projection of power by the current United States Administration", which is reverberating across the Middle East. His counterpart from Malaysia underscored an unconditional obligation of the occupying Power to facilitate the rapid and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance into the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Indonesia's delegate said the growing recognition of the State of Palestine by a broader UN membership, together with the adoption of the New York Declaration, "signals increasing political will to reinvigorate efforts towards the realization of the two-State solution". "Namibia will continue with its unconditional support and solidarity to the Palestinian people," the country's representative said.

Complete Live Blog coverage of today's meeting can be found here.