What you need to know about the Gaza ceasefire agreement: A ceasefire is a critical step. But we must keep working to ensure the path toward justice and accountability.... The U.S. must end all arms sales and take action to end its complicity in occupation, apartheid, and genocide.

The agreement is a critical step, but it’s just the beginning of the long path toward justice and accountability. 

https://afsc.org/news/what-you-need-know-about-gaza-ceasefire-agreement?ms=EMA26WR1011&emci=f643558d-46a5-f011-8e61-6045bded8ba4&emdi=2df14704-9ea6-f011-8e61-6045bded8ba4&ceid=704076 

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By Nusaiba Mubarak

Oct 9, 2025

After two years of genocide, a ceasefire agreement has been reached in Gaza. AFSC welcomes this critical first step while recognizing we must keep pushing for justice and accountability. 

For two years, we have called for an end to Israeli attacks, the release of all people held captive, and full humanitarian access to Gaza. We are grateful to everyone around the world who has organized, protested, and demanded an end to the genocide—despite repression. And we stand with our staff and all Palestinians in Gaza who have survived the unimaginable.

One can't help but feel a sense of relief at the sight of Palestinian children playing and singing in front of their tents, celebrating this moment and hope for peace.  While we embrace this agreement, we also know that a ceasefire is just the beginning, not the end. 

Here’s what you need to know about what happens next:

Life-saving food and medical aid must enter Gaza immediately: The famine in Gaza remains, and it is urgent that aid enters immediately without restriction. The medical system has been destroyed, and without urgent action, people will continue to die even if bombs are not falling. More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed, and over 90% of homes and schools in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. Action is needed to meet the needs of everyone who has been displaced, injured, and denied education.

Israel must completely withdraw from Gaza: Over 86% of Gaza remains occupied by Israeli forces within the Israeli-militarized zone, under displacement orders, or where these overlap. There cannot be an end to the war without Israel withdrawing from Gaza completely.

The blockade on Gaza must end: Israel’s blockade on Gaza began in 2007. It has prevented the movement of Palestinians, restricted the import of commercial goods, and denied fishermen access to Gaza’s waters. The impacts have been devastating. Even before the start of the genocide, 62% of Gaza’s population required food assistance, and 78% of drinking water was unfit for human consumption.

The mechanism of aid delivery matters: The U.N. Relief Works Agency is the organization most suited to deliver aid in Gaza. Despite facing massive cuts in funding from Israel and the U.S., UNRWA’s vital work continues. It is still administering the majority of medical services in Gaza and operating around 70% of shelters, which host an estimated 80,000 people.

Israel must adhere to the ceasefire agreement: Israel has violated every past ceasefire agreement, including in March of this year. In September, it also directly targeted and attempted to kill the Palestinian negotiating team in Doha, Qatar. Until there is a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to occupation and apartheid, the risk of violence resuming will remain.

President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza is dangerous: While the ceasefire is a step in the right direction, the president’s post-ceasefire plan is dangerous, allowing Israeli and U.S. developers to take over and control Gaza. Under the plan, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair—one of the leads of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq—would be responsible for new leadership in Gaza. The rebuilding and authority of Gaza should not be in the hands of the U.S. or UK leadership. We must continue to push for Palestinian self-determination.

The U.S. must end all arms sales and military assistance to Israel: Those responsible for this genocide must be held to account. The U.S. must end all arms sales and take action to end its complicity in occupation, apartheid, and genocide. 

Journalists must be protected and allowed entry into Gaza: Israel has prevented international journalists from entering Gaza for the last two years, while Israel has killed over 250 Palestinian journalists. Along with humanitarian aid workers, more journalists must enter Gaza, and the world must listen. 

Israel must stop its illegal annexation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem: As the Israeli government continued its genocide in Gaza, it has continued its project of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. Since January 2025, it has forcefully displaced 40,000 Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank through military violence and settler attacks. Israel is moving forward with its settlement plan, which would divide the West Bank in two, cut off East Jerusalem, and expand illegal settlement expansion.

Israel must release Palestinians who remain in its prisons: Over 11,000 Palestinians remain in Israeli prisons, over 3,500 of them in administrative detention. The majority are held without charge—without trial or due process—and are subject to documented torture and abuse. Since October 2023, there have been at least 77 Palestinians killed in Israel’s prisons.

The U.S. and Israel must be held accountable: The U.S. has sent over $30 billion of arms to Israel since October 2023, and just weeks ago, Trump announced another $6.5 billion package to Israel. Congress must use its responsibility of congressional oversight to enforce U.S. law, including the Leahy law, which prohibits the use of U.S. funding for any foreign security forces committing gross human rights violations.  

A ceasefire is just the start. To bring true justice, Israel's occupation and apartheid must end. The U.S. must end all arms sales to Israel and hold the Israeli government accountable. Palestinian self-determination is not negotiable—it is a fundamental right that must be upheld.

https://afsc.org/news/what-you-need-know-about-gaza-ceasefire-agreement?ms=EMA26WR1011&emci=f643558d-46a5-f011-8e61-6045bded8ba4&emdi=2df14704-9ea6-f011-8e61-6045bded8ba4&ceid=704076 

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Palestinian refugees in Gaza- AFSC Defending a displaced people

                                            American Friends Service Committee

When the 1948 Arab-Israeli War left nearly 250,000 Palestinian refugees stranded in Gaza, the United Nations turned to AFSC to help organize relief services. Early in 1949, 20 AFSC staffers faced a sea of people and began distributing food, clothing, tents, and blankets. Ultimately, a renowned African-American physician, Dr. Jerome Peterson, came to manage medical care.

While staff from other relief agencies lived apart in guarded houses, the Quakers “lived as close as we could … open and present and among the people all the time.” By 1950, when the United Nations took over, more than 100 AFSC staffers had worked in Gaza—most of them in their 20s and early 30s. They had managed to help Palestinians create schools, maternity centers, metal shops, and recreation clubs.

Learn More

• Read more about AFSC's continuing peace-building work in the Middle East
• Learn more from the AFSC archives

Camps were roughly grouped around three cities: Gaza (the largest), Khan Younis, and Rafah.

 

 

 

The cold, rainy winters in Gaza made adequate shelter essential.

Even with donated blankets, nights were so chilly that people often huddled together to stay warm.

 

Lentils and beans supplemented flour and oil in the refugees’ meager diets.

Initially, children had no writing tools. They learned by reciting aloud and sat on the mats, sacks or the ground.

Even in these surroundings, “they had the boundless eagerness of school children everywhere,” wrote one volunteer.

 

 

https://peaceworks.afsc.org/palestinian-refugees-gaza

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Outreach: American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) "Our Israeli and Palestinian partners in the Middle East as well as our partners in the U.S. believe as we do that a lasting peace must begin with a commitment to shared security for all."

"Our interconnected world requires an interconnected response."

Dear Anne,

In this interconnected world, the problems we face in our own communities are intimately linked with the fate of other communities and nations. What happens in the U.S. matters around the world, and what happens around the world matters here.

This is particularly visible in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians—a conflict defined by enduring injustices, unconscionable economic inequalities, and a discriminatory legal system designed to privilege one group of people over another. Despite considering Israeli settlements to be illegal, the U.S. continues to send military aid to Israel, perpetuating the injustice.

These settlements are at the core of the conflict. They are built on stolen land and used to justify the building of the Wall and the restriction of movement within the West Bank. They contribute to forced displacement, severely limit Palestinian access to basic resources including land and water, and perpetuate a system of segregation and structural inequality between Palestinians and Israelis.

In the U.S., in Israel, and in the occupied Palestinian territory, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a continuing witness for change, supporting a courageous nonviolent movement that seeks to end this infamous occupation. Our Israeli and Palestinian partners in the Middle East as well as our partners in the U.S. believe as we do that a lasting peace must begin with a commitment to shared security for all.

In just the past few months, AFSC's Middle East staff has witnessed hopeful movements in this struggle for lasting peace and justice:

• Last fall, the Israeli organization Zochrot hosted a conference in Tel Aviv on the practicalities of Palestinian refugee return.
• In December, an 18-year-old Druze man refused draft orders to serve in the Israeli army, joining a small group of conscientious objectors in Israel taking a stand against the militarization of Israeli society. 

Meanwhile, here in the U.S., efforts to draw attention to the illegal settlements through nonviolent means—notably, boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS)—have begun to bear fruit:

• When Scarlett Johansson, actress and Global Ambassador for Oxfam, took a lucrative contract to advertise for SodaStream—a company that operates a factory in an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank—there was a public outcry prompting her resignation from her Oxfam role.
• In February, an article in The Economist observed that the BDS movement, "once derided as the scheming of crackpots" is “turning mainstream,” citing increased attention from some of the world’s largest financial institutions.
• Now, throughout the U.S., people are learning more about the Palestinian call for BDS and the history of boycotts thanks to a new exhibition, “Boycott! The Art of Economic Activism,” put together by AFSC and the Center for the Study of Political Graphics. Using powerful posters to demonstrate the effectiveness of boycotts as a nonviolent tactic to end injustice and oppression, “Boycott!” will tour the U.S. throughout the next two years.

Our interconnected world requires an interconnected response. Through creative collaborations with Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans, we are making real progress toward lasting peace and justice. I hope you, like me, will be heartened by these small but significant wins along the way.
In Peace,

Shan Cretin
General Secretary

---

American Friends Service Committee
1501 Cherry Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102
AFSC.org

The return of Palestinian refugees

Quakers distribute blankets to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, 1948. Photo: AFSC

Published: October 21, 2013

In the Palestinian Nakba of 1948, hundreds of Palestinian villages were depopulated and razed off the map by the Israeli forces, creating one of the worst refugee crises of the century.

Today, many of the sites no longer exist, but traces of the past can be seen at times across a deserted landscape—namely a cactus tree here, or ruins of a church or a mosque there.

Zochrot, an Israeli nonprofit organization that educates the Jewish-Israeli public about the Palestinian Nakba, recently organized a conference that tried to imagine a future where the return of refugees would be a reality.

The conference was held at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv, built on the lands of the Palestinian village of Al-Shaykh Muwannis that was destroyed in 1948.

Around the theme “From truth to redress,” 35 presenters—academics and activists from Palestine/Israel, Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Serbia, and Poland—tackled the various concepts and ideas for realizing the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland and its spatial implications. With hundreds of participants, they addressed the Israeli conscience on the injustice that occurred.

Third and fourth generation Palestinian refugees talked about how they dreamed, planned, and are studying the reconstruction of their villages of origin.

Academics also tackled the problems of education for a culture of return. Other presenters talked about the approaches and strategies needed to achieve justice and return.

As a co-sponsor of the event, AFSC feels it is important to share a statement made by a member of the audience, Sinai Peter, a director and drama teacher from Israel:

"I was present in one of the two days of the conference. I was a curious, challenged and engaged observer. I was impressed by the fact that such a conference took place, if you will—against all attempts to bring to a cancellation of it. In the heart of "Eretz Israel Museum", founded by Rehavam Ze'evi, it took place very quietly and orderly, in three languages with simultaneous translation. The average age of the speakers (women and men, Jews and Arabs—almost equally) was around 30. It's been a long time since I heard a discourse like in that day at the conference—intelligent, refreshing, with quite a lot of optimism and constrictive spirit. Jurists, architects, activists, artists—all took part in planning the layout and characteristics of the villages that (might) come back to life. An actual mirror reflection of the "exemplary society" that was planned by the Zionist elite in east Europe in the end of the 19th century.

"Strange thing—imagining the return of the refugees. Far from the political, concrete situation. Speaking, planning, walking seriously towards making the dream come true. But who will lead this move into the truly-frightened consciousness of the Jewish majority? And how can the return be possible before pacification of the conflict? I was left with questions. But then again, when was the last time that we came out of a conference so challenged and full of questions?"

Zochrot will continue to promote awareness on the right of return of Palestinian refugees, and given AFSC’s principles for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, including the right of return of Palestinian refugees and the right of self-determination to both people, AFSC will continue to work hand in hand with this strategic partner.

For more on the Israel-Palestine Program, please contact: Ilona Kassissieh at IKassissieh@afsc.org

See more about:

Israel

Palestine

self determination 

right of refugees

right of return
 

Do Palestinians have a right to return to the places from which they or their ancestors were displaced?

Palestinian refugees’ right to return to the homes from which they were displaced is well established in International law.  The first source of support for Palestinian refugees’ claims to a right of return is UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) Of December 1948, paragraph 11, in which the UN General Assembly,

“Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible;
Instructs the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation…”

Since 1949, this resolution together with UNSC Res. 242 and 338 have been regularly reaffirmed by the UN General Assembly.

The rights outlined in this resolution are firmly grounded in international humanitarian, human rights, and refugee law.  According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Executive Conclusion No. 40, “…the basic rights of persons to return voluntarily to their country of origin is reaffirmed and it is urged that international cooperation be aimed at achieving this solution.”[xi]  UNHCR’s support for the right of return is based on the idea that the right of return is a recognized customary norm of International law which is included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Fourth Geneva Convention.[xii]