{"id":316684,"date":"2026-04-09T10:56:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T14:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=316684"},"modified":"2026-04-09T10:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T14:59:13","slug":"march-2026-monthly-bulletin","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/march-2026-monthly-bulletin\/","title":{"rendered":"Francesca Albanese\u2019s new report \u201cTorture and Genocide\u201d, rising settler violence and displacement, and discrimination against Palestinian women and girls – Action by UN System Relevant to the Question of Palestine (March 2026 Monthly Bulletin)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Disclaimer<\/strong>: The texts and links cited in this Monthly Bulletin have been\u00a0reproduced in their original form<\/u>. The Division for Palestinian Rights is consequently not responsible for the views, positions or discrepancies contained in these texts.<\/em><\/p>\n

Contents<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
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  1. Settler violence displaces more Palestinians in 2026 than in all of 2025<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Discriminatory laws and policies against Palestinian women and girls<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. \u201cTorture and Genocide\u201d- Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese\u2019s new report <\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Humanitarian situation, restrictions to aid in Gaza and new UNRWA leadership<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    <\/a>I. Settler violence displaces more Palestinians in 2026 than in all of 2025<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), nearly 1,700 Palestinians have been displaced<\/a> due to settler attacks and access restrictions in less than three months in 2026, a number that \u201calready surpassed the total of the whole of 2025\u201d. On 19 March, UNRWA Commissioner-General denounced<\/a> the impunity of Israeli settlers\u2019 violence, reporting that over 1,000 Palestinians had been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 2023, almost a quarter of whom were children. The issue of settler violence was also raised by the Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Ramiz Alakbarov, at the UN Security Council. In his briefing on 24 March, Alakbarov condemned<\/a> \u201cthe relentless Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank\u201d, the heightened level of violence, and \u201cdisplacement, demolitions, evictions and crippling movement and access restrictions\u201d affecting the Palestinian people. \u201cDaily settler-related attacks escalated, often in the presence of Israeli forces, resulting in casualties, property damage and displacement in Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank,\u201d Alakbarov said.<\/p>\n

    Simultaneously, presenting a report<\/a> to the UN Human Rights Council\u00a0on Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem, the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights stated<\/a> that \u201cIsraeli authorities directed, participated in, or enabled settler violence.\u201d Subsequently, the Council, by a recorded vote<\/a> of 34 in favour, 3 against and 10 abstentions, adopted a resolution<\/a> reaffirming that Israeli settlements \u201care illegal under international law, and constitute a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace, and to economic and social development.\u201d<\/p>\n

    More details and related content<\/em><\/p>\n

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    1. Israel\u2019s settlement expansion drives mass displacement in West Bank \u2013 OHCHR Report<\/a> (17 March)<\/li>\n
    2. UNRWA Commissioner-General: Over 1,000 Palestinians killed in the West Bank since October 2023<\/a> (19 March)<\/li>\n
    3. Draft resolution: Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan (A\/HRC\/61\/L.36)<\/a> (23 March)<\/li>\n
    4. Draft resolution: Right of the Palestinian people to self-determination (A\/HRC\/61\/L.37)<\/a> (23 March)<\/li>\n
    5. The Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights updates the Human Rights Council on Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the occupied Syrian Golan <\/a>(24 March)<\/li>\n
    6. Thirty-seventh report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of Security Council resolution 2334 (2016) <\/a>(24 March)<\/li>\n
    7. UNRWA Commissioner-General on the West Bank: Violence by Israeli settlers continues unabated<\/a> (25 March)<\/li>\n
    8. UN and NGOs urge the Israeli authorities to stop forced evictions in East Jerusalem<\/a> (26 March)<\/li>\n
    9. OCHA: Settler violence displaces more Palestinians in 2026 than in all of 2025 <\/a>(27 March)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n

      <\/a>II. Discriminatory laws and policies against Palestinian women and girls<\/strong><\/h2>\n

      On 18 March, the UN Palestinian Rights Committee held a meeting<\/a> on \u201cDiscriminatory laws and policies against Palestinian women and girls under Israeli occupation: Justice demands accountability.\u201d In her opening remarks\u00a0Mona Al-Khalil, Minister for Women\u2019s Affairs of the State of Palestine, stressed that Palestinian women remained \u201cfundamental pillars of resilience\u201d and their empowerment one of the \u201ckey elements of Palestinian society\u2019s recovery\u201d. The meeting examined how Israeli occupation policies affect Palestinian women\u2019s rights, particularly their access to justice and essential services. Civil society speakers highlighted how conflict, displacement and legal barriers disproportionately affect women in Gaza and the West Bank, stressing the need to end impunity for human rights violations.<\/p>\n

      The meeting was held on the margins of the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at United Nations Headquarters. However, four of the participants spoke by video from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, due to a combination of United States visa restrictions on Palestinian passports, and the unpredictable airspace in the Middle East. Further details about the event are available on the Committee\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      More details and related content: <\/em><\/p>\n

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      1. UN experts condemn \u2018Board of Peace\u2019, call for a reparative, rights-based approach to reconstruction in Gaza<\/a> (2 March)<\/li>\n
      2. UNRWA Commissioner-General on International Women’s Day: Palestine refugee women must be part of conversations shaping their future <\/a>(8 March)<\/li>\n
      3. International Women\u2019s Day: In Gaza, Hajar continues serving amid loss<\/a> (8 March)<\/li>\n
      4. International Women\u2019s Day: Soumaya stitches strength in Gaza through UNRWA\u2019s embroidery centre <\/a>(8 March)<\/li>\n
      5. International Women\u2019s Day: In Gaza, Salma signs a path forward for women<\/a> (8 March)<\/li>\n
      6. Justice for Palestinian women demands end to occupation, reparations, accountability, experts tell UN Palestinian Rights Committee<\/a> (18 March)<\/li>\n
      7. 427th Committee Meeting on the margins of the 70th Session on the Commission on the Status of Women<\/a> (18 March)<\/li>\n
      8. UN experts: state-backed terror squads at the forefront of Israel\u2019s ethnic cleansing and annexation policy in the West Bank<\/a> (19 March)<\/li>\n
      9. Palestinian women bearing the brunt of occupation, violence, and blockade – Remarks by Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights in the OPT<\/a> (30 March)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n

        <\/a>III. \u201cTorture and Genocide\u201d- Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese\u2019s new report<\/strong><\/h2>\n

        Israel\u2019s systematic torture of Palestinians, long shielded by decades of impunity and political cover, has become a defining instrument of ongoing genocide in the occupied Palestinian territory, said<\/a> Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, in her new report<\/a> to the UN Human Rights Council. \u201cSince the onset of the genocide, the Israeli prison system has degenerated into a laboratory of calculated cruelty,\u201d she stated. \u201cWhat once operated in the shadows is now practiced openly: a regime of organised humiliation, pain and degradation, sanctioned at the highest political levels.\u201d Albanese said policies imposed by senior Israeli officials, including the Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, have institutionalised torture, collective punishment and manifestly dehumanising conditions of detention. The report argues that torture is not an isolated abuse but has become \u201can integral component of the settler-colonial genocide perpetrated by Israel, functioning as an instrument of annihilatory violence directed at the Palestinians as a people.\u201d One of the report\u2019s central warnings is that \u201cgenocide has become the ultimate form of torture: continuous, generational, and collective.\u201d<\/p>\n

        More details and related content: <\/em><\/p>\n

          \n
        1. UN experts condemn \u2018Board of Peace\u2019, call for a reparative, rights-based approach to reconstruction in Gaza<\/a> (2 March)<\/li>\n
        2. ICJ: Paraguay files a declaration of intervention (South Africa v. Israel)<\/a> (4 March)<\/li>\n
        3. UN experts warn against the irreversible \u2018de-Palestinisation\u2019 of Jerusalem<\/a> (6 March)<\/li>\n
        4. OHCHR Palestine: Human Rights Bulletin – Reporting period (4 – 9 March 2026)<\/a> (10 March)<\/li>\n
        5. ICJ: Declarations of intervention in the proceedings filed by the Netherlands and by Iceland under Article 63 of the Statute of the Court (South Africa v. Israel)<\/a> (12 March)<\/li>\n
        6. ICJ: Declarations of intervention in the proceedings filed by Namibia, the United States of America, Hungary and Fiji (South Africa v. Israel)<\/a> (13 March)<\/li>\n
        7. OHCHR: Alarm over pattern of unlawful killings with two Palestinian families killed <\/a>(15 March)<\/li>\n
        8. UNICEF: Two young siblings killed in Tammun, West Bank, as child casualties continue<\/a> (17 March)<\/li>\n
        9. Torture and genocide – Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 – Advance edited version (A\/HRC\/61\/71)<\/a> (23 March)<\/li>\n
        10. UN expert Francesca Albanese warns torture has become \u2018state doctrine\u2019 in Israel, making prisons instruments of genocide and torture<\/a> (23 March)<\/li>\n
        11. Draft resolution: Human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice (A\/HRC\/61\/L.35)<\/a> (23 March)<\/li>\n
        12. UN experts demand immediate release of Dr Abu Safiya after reports of \u201csevere torture\u201d<\/a> (24 March)<\/li>\n
        13. Revised draft resolution: Human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice (A\/HRC\/61\/L.35\/Rev.1) <\/a>(26 March)<\/li>\n
        14. High Commissioner for Human Rights T\u00fcrk warns against Israel’s legislative steps targeting Palestinians in violation of international law<\/a> (31 March)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n

          <\/a>IV. Humanitarian situation, restrictions to aid in Gaza and new UNRWA leadership<\/strong><\/h2>\n

          On 3 March, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced <\/a>that the Kerem Shalom\u00a0crossing\u00a0had reopened for the entry of fuel and humanitarian\u00a0assistance into Gaza and remains the only operational crossing for humanitarian and commercial supplies to date. The closure <\/a>of other crossings continued to hinder in particular aid delivery to northern Gaza. On 5 March, OCHA reported<\/a> that a recent assessment of displacement sites had found that only 11% of\u00a0nearly\u00a01,000\u00a0sites\u00a0have\u00a0communal lighting, while open sewage was\u00a0observed\u00a0in more than half of all sites surveyed. On 11 March, OCHA further warned<\/a> of health system failing and increasing risk of infectious diseases at displacement sites in Gaza, and of continued restrictions to aid operations. On 18 March, OCHA raised the alarm<\/a> of depleting humanitarian supplies since the regional escalation began.<\/p>\n

          On 31 March, the UN Secretary-General designated<\/a> Christian Saunders as Acting Commissioner-General of UNRWA. In his farewell message to staff, the outgoing UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini underscored<\/a> the \u201cAgency\u2019s outstanding work and the unacceptable price paid by staff and the communities\u201d they serve, recalling the \u201cmore than 390 colleagues\u201d killed in Gaza and the many others \u201cinjured, detained, tortured\u201d. He praised the staff for their courage that made possible to deliver core services and emergency assistance to those most in need despite exceptional constraints.<\/p>\n

          More details and related content:<\/em><\/p>\n

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          1. Updates by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)\n