ReutersUN experts accused Israel of increasingly using sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians and carrying out “genocide” through the systematic destruction of maternal and reproductive health facilities.
A report commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council alleged that since Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 caused the Gaza War, it has alleged violations, including rape, involving Gaza and the West Bank.
It also states that embryo destruction in Gaza’s maternity wards and fertility clinics may indicate strategies to prevent births in certain groups – one of the legal definitions of genocide.
Israel said it “decisively rejects unfounded allegations.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded angrily, calling the Human Rights Council a “body unrelated to anti-Semitic, rotten, terrorist support.”
Instead of focusing on the war crimes Hamas committed, he said he was attacking Israel with “false accusations.”
Warning: This article contains painful content
The Independent International Committee on Independent International Inquiry on Occupied Palestinian Territories was established in 2021 by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate all violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.
The three-person committee said the new report was based on testimony from victims and witnesses of sexual and reproductive violence. Some of them have been verified during a two-day hearing held in Geneva earlier this week, and with information and video footage from civil society and women’s rights organizations.
The committee chairperson, former UN Human Rights Director in South Africa, said the evidence gathered “discovers a deplorable increase in sexual and gender-based violence.”
The report states that certain forms of sexual and gender-based violence, including forced public deprivation, nudity, sexual harassment, including rape threats and “constitutes part of the standard operating procedures of Israeli security forces against Palestinians.”
Other forms of such violence, including rape and violence against the genitals, allegedly “committed under explicit orders or with implicit encouragement by top Israeli civilians and military leaders.”
This report does not provide examples of explicit orders from commanders or senior officials. However, it cites a statement from an Israeli minister who defended a soldier who was accused of severely abused Palestinian detainees at Sde Teiman military base last year.
Australian human rights lawyer Commissioner Chris Sidoti told the BBC:
Israel rejected accusations of widespread abuse and torture of detainees in Gaza, claiming it was entirely committed to international legal standards.
ReutersAccording to the report, the committee also found that Israeli forces systematically destroyed sexual and reproductive health facilities throughout Gaza during the 17-month war.
They conclude that women and girls died from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth due to conditions imposed by Israeli authorities who denied access to reproductive care, which they say is equivalent to an extinct crime against humanity.
The committee also states that Israeli authorities have announced that Palestinians will be releasing Palestinians in Gaza, as a group, including the “systematic and reproductive hospitals” and hospital maternity wards, Gaza’s major fertility clinical practice, and Gaza’s major clinical clinical practice.”
It concludes that “contains two categories of genocide conduct in Roman law and the Genocide Convention and the imposition of measures aimed at preventing birth, intentionally giving the conditions of life calculated to result in physical destruction of the Palestinians.”
According to the report, the Al-Basma Developmental Institute was a hit in early December 2023, destroying approximately 4,000 embryos, 1,000 sperm samples and unfertilized eggs, reportedly.
The committee states through visual analysis of the photographs it determined that the damage was caused by a large caliber projectile, perhaps an Israeli tank shell, and intentionally attacked by Israeli forces. However, the Israeli military told ABC News at the time it was not aware of the strike on the clinic. The BBC contacted the IDF for comments.
“The deliberation of health facilities is one of the major issues of international humanitarian and human rights law. However, analysis of the attacks on this clinic reveals that it was intentionally and intentionally directed towards the destruction of reproductive services,” Sidoti said. “The outcome of this is birth prevention.”
In a statement, Israel’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva said the report was to “produce the (Israel Defence Force) charges and to produce the illusion of the “systematic” use of (sexual and gender-based violence).
It criticized what was called the committee’s decision to use “information from a single, unlimited source of second-hand information.”
The statement also emphasized that the IDF “has specific instructions, procedures, orders and policies that explicitly prohibit such misconduct,” and highlighted the mechanisms for investigating incidents of suspected sexual violence.
The Israeli Prime Minister also rejected the findings of the report, calling the Human Rights Council an “anti-Israel Circus.”
“Instead of focusing on crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by Hamas terrorist groups in the worst massacres committed against Jews since the Holocaust, the United Nations has once again chosen to attack the Israeli state with false accusations, including baseless accusations of sexual violence,” Netanyahu said.
The International Court of Justice has heard of a South African purchase that accused Israeli military of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel is vehemently denying the allegations.
Israeli forces launched a campaign on October 7, 2023 to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack. Around 1,200 people were killed there and 251 were taken hostages.
More than 48,520 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamasran Ministry of Health.
Most of Gaza’s 2.1 million population has also been exiled multiple times. It is estimated that almost 70% of the buildings have been damaged or destroyed. Healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed. And there is a shortage of food, fuel, medicines and shelters.
