Ref: 51/2020

Date: 30 May 2020

At approximately 15:00 on Thursday, 28 May 2020, young girl M. N. G. (21), from al-Zawaidah village in central Gaza Strip, arrived at al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah showing clear signs of physical assault throughout her body and her medical condition was classified as critical. At approximately 01:00 on Friday, 29 May 2020, doctors at al-Aqsa Hospital pronounced the young woman dead. At approximately 09:00 on the same Friday, the young woman’s body was referred to the Forensic Medicine Department at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to identify the cause of death.

According to information obtained by the Palestinian Centre for human Rights (PCHR)’s fieldworker from a source at the Forensic Medicine Department, the cause of death was torture and beating, causing bruises all over the victim’s body in addition to strangulation attempts around her neck. Police sources stated that the young girl was beaten by her father due to a family dispute and the police opened an investigation into the incident. Security services are still searching for the girl’s father until issuing this release.

PCHR is deeply concerned over the continued murder crimes against women in the Palestinian society and calls upon official authorities to provide more protection mechanisms for women and girls.

With this crime, the number of women killed during this year rises to two, as 25-year-old S. Sh. Was killed in February, who was found by the police in her house in al-Nasser neighborhood, west of Gaza City. The young woman was dead upon arrival to al-Shifa Hospital and Forensic Medicine Department sources reported strangulation and pressure on the neck as the cause of death.

PCHR is gravely concerned over the growing phenomenon of gender-based violence, including murder crimes on various grounds and the continued perpetration of such crimes against women and girls in Palestinian society and calls for:

1. The Public Prosecution to exert more efforts to prosecute perpetrators, especially those who commit crimes against women, and to take all necessary legal proceedings against them without any excuse to commute the court sentences;
2. State of Palestine adherence to the international conventions it has acceded to, which oblige it to take all necessary measures to protect women, and consider murders against women, regardless of the motives and grounds, as premeditated murders; and to adopt deterrent legislations to combat the spread of this phenomenon; and
3. The Palestinian Authority must take the necessary measures to put an end to community violence by holding perpetrators of crimes against women accountable, adopting family protection law to protect against violence and to align national laws with international conventions.