UN report accuses Israel of ‘genocidal acts' and systematic sexual violence in Gaza

Al Bawaba

13-03-2025

ALBAWABA- The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel released its findings Thursday, highlighting the use of heavy explosives in civilian areas, direct attacks on hospitals, and the destruction of reproductive healthcare facilities.
These actions led to "disproportionate violence against women and children," the report states.
Israel committed "genocidal acts" against Palestinians by systematically destroying women's healthcare facilities in Gaza and using sexual violence as a war strategy, according to the damning report by United Nations experts.
According to Navi Pillay, chair of the commission, Israel has used sexual and gender-based violence as a tool to terrorize Palestinians and sustain a system of oppression.
The report details alarming abuses, including forced public stripping, sexual harassment, threats of rape, and sexual assault, which it claims have been part of Israeli security forces' standard procedures.
More extreme violations, including rape and violence to the genitals, were reportedly carried out under either direct orders or with implicit approval from Israel's leadership.
Israeli settlers in the West Bank have also been accused of committing sexual and gender-based crimes to instill fear and forcibly displace Palestinian communities, often with impunity.
One of the report's most severe findings is Israel's targeting of Gaza's maternity wards and the destruction of its only in-vitro fertility clinic, while also blocking humanitarian aid for pregnant women and newborns.
These actions amount to crimes against humanity, including extermination by denying Palestinian women access to reproductive healthcare.
The commission argues that Israel has 'destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group,' which it classifies as genocidal acts under the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention.
The report also documents a sharp rise in female fatalities in Gaza, attributing the deaths to Israeli airstrikes on residential buildings and densely populated areas.
Women and girls, including maternity patients, were directly targeted in acts the commission calls 'the crime against humanity of murder and the war crime of willful killing.'
The findings were presented alongside two days of public hearings in Geneva on March 11-12, where victims, witnesses, and medical personnel provided testimony.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the report as biased and antisemitic, accusing the United Nations of ignoring war crimes committed by Hamas.
"Instead of focusing on the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Hamas terrorist organization ... the United Nations once again chooses to attack the state of Israel with false accusations," Netanyahu said in a statement.