Legal framework on freedom of religion and actual application
The UN General Assembly, the UN Security Council, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) consider the Palestinian Territories to be under Israeli occupation[1] since June 1967, when Israel seized Palestinian territory beyond the 1949 armistice lines- namely East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip —which had been held until then by Jordan and Egypt. In 1993, as a result of the Oslo agreement, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) formally recognised each other. One year later, the Palestinian Authority (PA), officially the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), was established as a transitional institution of Palestinian self-rule[2] in certain parts of the West Bank and Gaza, but not East Jerusalem, which Israel considers an integral part of its capital and where the PA exerts no authority at all.
Bilateral negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, intended to create a Palestinian state next to Israel, have not been successful. In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza but kept control over access to the territory. The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, took it over in 2007. Since then, the Palestinian Territories have been split between the internationally recognised PA government in Ramallah (West Bank) and the Hamas-controlled Gaza. Over the same period, Israel and Hamas have clashed militarily on several occasions.
In November 2012, the UN General Assembly admitted Palestine as a non-member observer state.[3] On 3 January 2013, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree replacing the Palestinian Authority with the name State of Palestine.[4] Palestine is currently recognised by 146 UN member states,[5] plus the Holy See.[6]
In 2015, the Holy See and the State of Palestine signed a Comprehensive Agreement,[7] which came into full force in January 2016. It covers essential aspects of the life and activities of the Catholic Church in Palestine, including the right of the Church to operate in Palestinian territory, and of Christians to practise their faith and participate fully in society.
Palestinians are mostly Sunni Muslims, but there is an indigenous Christian community of about 40,000 to 50,000 (around 9,000-10,000 in East Jerusalem)[8] and a tiny Samaritan community of around 400 members living near Nablus.[9] Around 737,000 Israeli Jewish settlers live in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are considered illegal under international law.[10]
Palestine has no permanent constitution, but the Palestinian Basic Law, promulgated in 2003 and revised in 2005, serves as a temporary charter.[11]
Article 4 (1-3) states: “Islam is the official religion in Palestine. Respect for the sanctity of all other divine religions shall be maintained. The principles of Islamic Shari‘a shall be a principal source of legislation. Arabic shall be the official language.”
According to Article 9, “Palestinians shall be equal before the law and the judiciary, without distinction based upon race, sex, colour, religion, political views or disability.” Article 18 stipulates: “Freedom of belief, worship and the performance of religious functions are guaranteed, provided public order or public morals are not violated.” Article 101 says that “Shari‘a law and matters of personal status shall come under the jurisdiction of Shari‘a and religious courts, in accordance with the law.”
Conversion from Islam is not explicitly banned but, in practice, it does not occur due to strong social pressure. Proselytising is forbidden.[12]
Pursuant to a Presidential Decree of 2017, the heads of several municipal councils — Ramallah, Bethlehem, Beit Jala and six others — must be Palestinian Christians even if Christians are not the majority in those cities.[13] A 2021 Presidential Decree allocated seven seats to Christians in the 132-member Palestinian Legislative Council.[14] Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has Christian ministers and advisers. Christians are also represented in the PA foreign service and domestic administration.
The PA officially recognises 13 Christian denominations.[15] These include the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, and Anglican Churches. Ecclesiastical Courts decide on matters of personal status, including marriage, divorce and inheritance in accordance with Church laws. Other Churches, mostly Evangelical ones, were previously not officially able to register but could operate freely; however, they did not have the same rights in matters of personal status. In 2019, the Council of Local Evangelical Churches in Palestine was granted legal recognition. This means that Evangelical Churches can grant marriage licenses, open bank accounts and purchase and register land and churches.[16]
The territorial division of Palestine into Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem entails markedly different conditions for religious freedom. In Gaza, under Hamas, the Christian minority faces significant restrictions and social pressure, with limited tolerance for religious diversity. In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority formally guarantees freedom for “heavenly religions,” yet both Israeli security measures and the fragmented control over territory hinder access to worship and holy sites. East Jerusalem, governed by Israeli law, offers broader legal protections, but Palestinians — Muslim and Christian — encounter security barriers and administrative discrimination affecting religious practice.
Incidents and developments
In January 2023 a Palestinian researcher interviewed on official PA TV said that “Jews are by nature arrogant, do not accept the other.” He went on to say that “their [Jewish] thinking is based on racism that caused them to be hated everywhere. The Zionist thinking is based on […] the Protocols of the Elders of Zion”.[17]
In May 2023, PA President Mahmoud Abbas denied Jewish ties to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during a speech to the United Nations in New York City. Israel has “been digging [underneath the al-Aqsa Mosque] for 30 years to find any evidence or proof of the existence” of Jewish connection to the site, Abbas said. “Al-Sharif belongs exclusively to the Muslims”.[18]
In May 2023, numbering in the thousands, the largest group of Jewish pilgrims, since the COVID-19 pandemic visited Joseph’s Tomb, a disputed religious shrine[19] located in the PA-controlled town of Nablus.[20] In the aftermath of the 7 October 2023 terrorist attack against Israel by Hamas, Jewish pilgrims were prevented from visiting the site. They resumed some months later. In July 2024, Israeli forces escorted some 500 Jewish pilgrims to the Tomb, reportedly followed by clashes between soldiers and gunmen.[21]
In June 2023, a school was set on fire in Urif, a village in the West Bank, by Israeli settlers who also tried to torch homes and a mosque.[22] That same month, Israeli settlers stole and ripped up a Qur‘an from a mosque in Orif.[23] Egyptian Awqaf (Religious Endowments) Minister Mokhtar Gomaa condemned this desecration. “The settlers’ attack on one of the Orif mosques in Nablus and on copies of the Holy Koran in it is the source of terrorism, extremism and racism that undermines all opportunities for coexistence and violently undermines people’s freedom to choose their faith and perform the rituals of their religion in safety and security.”[24]
On 7 October 2023, during the early hours of the Jewish Sabbath on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, Hamas and other Islamist militant groups like Islamic Jihad launched coordinated incursions against Israel that included a massive barrage of rockets directed indiscriminately at Israeli settlements near the border with the Gaza Strip. Named “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,”[25] the surprise attack by air, ground and sea left approximately 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians, among them children. It was the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and the biggest terrorist attack in the history of the State of Israel.[26] More than 5,000 people were wounded,[27] while 251 people were taken as hostages to Gaza.[28] Soon after the attack, stories about people being raped[29] and bodies being mutilated[30] were reported. A UN special representative travelled to Israel on an official visit to assess allegations of sexual violence, concluding that there were “reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence” had “occurred”.[31] At the same time, various sources (in Israel and abroad) reported abuse of Palestinians, including torture and rape, by Israeli forces in Gaza and in prisons in Israel.[32]
Following the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack, Israel imposed a near-total ban on Palestinian workers entering from the occupied West Bank, triggering significant “supply shocks” in Israel, according to the central bank governor. Before the attack, more than 150,000 crossed daily, mainly for construction and agriculture. In December 2023, under pressure from business owners, the government allowed only between 8,000 to 10,000 to return[33] — limited to Israeli settlements and businesses in the West Bank — yet the Palestinian economy too has been badly hit, with mounting instability in the West Bank and Gaza’s economy nearing collapse.[34]
Israel’s retaliation to the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attack began almost immediately. On the same day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “We are at war,” and ordered airstrikes on Gaza targeting Hamas positions.[35]
Israel responded to Hamas’s attack by launching a full-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip with massive airstrikes that left vast areas devastated and uninhabitable.[36] According to numbers provided by the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, around 56,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 132,000 wounded as of 25 June 2025.[37]
In October 2023, 18 civilians were killed and at least a dozen wounded in an Israeli attack against the compound of the Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church. Some 450 members of Gaza’s small Christian community had found refuge in the church, which is located in Gaza’s old city.[38]
In October 2023, members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad died in an Israeli airstrike at Jenin’s Al-Ansar Mosque, which had been used as a command centre.[39]
In November 2023, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza destroyed more than 50 Christian homes and a Christian school, as well as damaged other Christian buildings, such as the Rosary Sisters School, which serves 1,250 students, both Christian and Muslim.[40]
In November 2023, Israeli settlers raised an Israeli flag on the minaret of a mosque in the al-Fawwar refugee camp close to Hebron.[41]
In December 2023, an elderly Christian mother and her daughter were shot and killed by an Israeli sniper on the grounds of a Catholic church in Gaza City. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem stated in a press release: “Around noon today […], a sniper of the Israel Defense Forces murdered two Christian women inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where the majority of Christian families have taken refuge since the start of the war”.[42] “Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot and killed as they walked to the Sister’s Convent. One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety.” Approached for comment, the Israeli military said it was looking into the incident, which took place on the grounds of the Gaza Strip’s only Catholic church.[43]
In his statement, the Patriarchate also said that several rockets fired by an Israeli tank had struck the Convent of the Sisters of Mother Theresa, home to 54 disabled people; as a result, the structure was damaged and lost its generator and fuel supplies, rendering it uninhabitable.[44]
In December 2023, images posted on social media showed Israeli soldiers reciting a Jewish prayer mimicking the Islamic style of prayer. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry denounced the desecration of the religious site. The soldiers were removed from operational activity.[45]
By February 2024, around 30 Christians had died due to the war in Gaza. These include people killed in the attack on the Greek Orthodox parish compound in October 2023, the two women killed by sniper fire at the Holy Family Catholic Church, and 11 people who died from chronic illnesses that could not be adequately treated.[46]
In March 2024, Israel imposed severe restrictions on West Bank Palestinian Christians who planned to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem. Only some 200 Christian leaders were allowed to enter the city, while their congregations were excluded.[47]
In April 2024, the European Parliament voted for a resolution that “condemns the problematic and hateful contents encouraging violence, spreading antisemitism and inciting hatred in Palestinian school textbooks drafted by [European] Union-funded civil servants, as well as in supplementary educational materials developed by UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) staff and taught in its schools.”[48] A similar resolution was adopted the previous year.[49]
In July 2024, after 12 years of legal battle, the Christian Kisiya family was evicted by the Israeli army and settlers from their land in al-Makhrour near Bethlehem.[50]
Also in July 2024, the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission of the Holy Land condemned both the terrorist attacks by Hamas and the Israeli response to them. “Neither the attacks by Hamas nor Israel’s devastating war in response satisfy the criteria for ‘just war’ according to Catholic Doctrine,” the Commission said. Citing Pope Francis who repeatedly appealed for an immediate ceasefire and the release of the Israeli hostages, the Commission’s statement stressed that Israel’s right to self-defence “must be guided by the principles of distinction and proportionality and comply with international humanitarian law.”[51] The Israeli embassy to the Holy See criticised the statement. “It should be lamented that a group of people from the Catholic Church has decided to issue a document that, using religious pretext and linguistic stunts, does nothing else than de facto objecting [to] Israel’s right to defend itself from its enemies’ declared intentions to put an end to its existence”.[52]
In August 2024, five Palestinian militants, including Muhammad Jabber, an Islamic Jihad commander, died in a shootout with Israeli soldiers “within and near a mosque” in Tulkarem, West Bank.[53] In the same month, the Israeli army closed the Ibrahim Mosque/Tomb of Patriarchs in Hebron after car bombings in the West Bank. “After the attack, security screenings at the Cave of the Patriarchs for the entry of Palestinian and Israeli worshippers were made stricter, and the area was closed for a short period due to security reasons,” the Israel Defence Forces stated.[54]
In August 2024, the Israeli military killed five Palestinian fighters inside a mosque in Tulkarem during one of its largest operations in the West Bank in months.[55]
Also in August 2024, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem condemned another Israeli raid against the Holy Family School in Gaza City[56] that resulted in four deaths and scores of wounded.[57] The building served as a shelter for civilians. No men or women religious lived at the site.[58]
In October 2024, the Ibrahim Mosque was closed again for four days to allow Jewish pilgrims to celebrate Jewish holidays as in previous years. Israeli authorities impose restrictions on Jews and Muslims regularly during their respective holidays out of security concerns.[59]
In November 2024, Gaza’s top Islamic scholar issued a fatwa criticising the 7 October 2023 attack. Salman al-Dayah, a former dean of the Faculty of Shari‘a and Law at the Hamas-affiliated Islamic University of Gaza, denounced Hamas for “violating Islamic principles governing jihad”. According to the scholar, before any military action is undertaken, its consequences must be considered.[60]
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and his former Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant. According to the ICC, there are reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant were responsible for crimes against humanity and war crimes.[61] A warrant was also issued for Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, commonly known as ‘Deif’, for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed on the territory of the State of Israel and the State of Palestine. The ICC had also issued arrest warrants for two other senior Hamas leaders, Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar. After their deaths were confirmed, the Prosecution withdrew its motion. In the case of Deif, the Chamber was not able to determine whether he was dead or alive.[62] In January 2025, Hamas confirmed the death of its military chief Deif.[63]
In December 2024, Israel released two Palestinian Christian women held in Israel under administrative detention. One of them, Lian Nasser, was denied the benefit of a visit from her parish priest, who wanted to bring her Holy Communion.[64]
In December 2024, three Hasidic Jewish pilgrims who entered Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus without prior security coordination were shot at and sustained minor injuries.[65] One man was wounded and was later handed over by the Palestinian police to the Israeli security forces. The others were retrieved by the Israeli army.[66] In December 2024, Palestinian gunmen lightly wounded a driver of a bus that had taken Jewish pilgrims to the site. The driver and 19 pilgrims were eventually arrested by the Israeli security forces for illegally entering the area.[67]
In December 2024, Pope Francis received Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Vatican, who asked the pontiff “to continue to promote the recognition of the State of Palestine in the international community.” For Abbas, “If peace is to be achieved, there is no alternative to the two-state solution.”[68]
As it did the previous year, Bethlehem celebrated Christmas in December 2024 on Manger Square in a scaled-down manner without festive lights nor a tree due to the ongoing war in Gaza.[69]
In late 2024 and early 2025, Israeli settlers targeted several mosques in the West Bank. In December 2024, they defaced a mosque in the village of Marda with racist graffiti and set it on fire.[70] In February 2025, settlers set fire to a mosque in the Bedouin village of Arab al-Mleihat, northwest of Jericho.[71] In March 2025, settlers stormed and vandalised a mosque in Khirbet Tana, a village in the northern West Bank. Worshippers involved in Ramadan prayers were assaulted.[72]
In February 2025, the heads of the Churches of Jerusalem denounced US President Donald Trump’s plan to “take over” and redevelop Gaza. “The people of Gaza, families who have lived for generations in the land of their ancestors,” they said, “must not be forced into exile, stripped of whatever is left of their homes, their heritage, and their right to remain in the land that forms the essence of their identity.”[73]
In February 2025, Vice-President for Advancement of Bethlehem University, Palestine’s only Catholic university, spoke to Vatican News about the struggles its students face in order to reach the university campus due to new Israeli security measures.[74]
In March 2025, Israeli authorities refused to fully open the Ibrahim Mosque to Muslims for Friday worship as it is customary during Ramadan. According to Palestinian authorities, during Ramadan, Fridays are among the “ten days throughout the year when the Ibrahimi Mosque is fully opened to Muslim worshippers”.[75]
In March 2025, Israel carried out fresh attacks close to Gaza’s Holy Family Parish Church after the truce with Hamas collapsed. When the war broke out, the parish compound became a place of refuge for 500 people, mostly Christians.[76]
Prospects for freedom of religion
During the period under review, the Palestinian Authority (PA) continued upholding a legal framework that guarantees freedom of worship but not comprehensive religious freedom. Nevertheless, traditional Christian Churches and their members can practise their faith relatively freely both in the West Bank and, with greater caution, in Gaza.
While the legal framework for religious freedom has not changed, the economic and security conditions are completely different since October 2023. Israel’s ban on Palestinian workers has aggravated the already dire economic situation in the West Bank and brought the economy in Gaza to the point of collapse.[77] The war between Israel and Hamas has also heavily affected religious tourism, a major source of income for Palestinian Christians. Christians and Muslims in Gaza and the West Bank have had no free access to Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem to visit religious sites. Movement in the West Bank is also much more restricted than before.[78]
The war has destroyed a great part of the religious infrastructure in Gaza. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Religious Endowments (Awqaf), by February 2025, 79 percent of the mosques in the Gaza Strip and three churches had been destroyed or heavily damaged. Some 255 Ministry-affiliated clerics and imams have been reportedly killed and 26 detained by Israel. The Israeli army has also hit 32 of Gaza’s 60 cemeteries, with 14 destroyed and 18 damaged.[79] The war left the already small Christian community in Gaza extremely vulnerable due to loss of life and the destruction of Church infrastructure. With no peace in sight, the prospects for freedom of religion are grim in Palestine.
Palestine and Gaza