Latest news with #UNIndependentInternationalCommissionofInquiry
Al Bawaba
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
UN report accuses Israel of ‘genocidal acts' and systematic sexual violence in Gaza
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.
Middle East Eye
13-03-2025
- Health
- Middle East Eye
‘A war against women': Israel committed ‘genocidal acts' by targeting women's facilities in Gaza
Israel has committed 'genocidal acts' through the systematic destruction of women's healthcare facilities in Gaza, UN experts said in a report on Thursday. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, found that Israel's systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities, coupled with restricted medical supplies, resulted in a surge in maternal deaths, and is therefore tantamount to the crime of extermination. Additionally, the report said that Israel's direct targeting of women's healthcare facilities has resulted in 'irreversible long-term effects on the mental health and reproductive and fertility prospects of Palestinians as a group'. This, the commission concluded, amounts to two categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention. They include deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians and imposing measures intended to prevent births. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters An obstetrician in Gaza who spoke to the commission described the violations as a 'war against women'. 'Giving birth in Gaza is like giving birth in the Middle Ages. There is no access to neonatal, prenatal or post-partum care,' another obstetrician quoted in the report said. 'Basic equipment for childbirth, such as forceps, is not available, nor are crucial drugs such as hypertension medication to treat common and serious conditions such as preeclampsia. As a result, maternal morbidity, stillbirths, and miscarriages have increased.' War on Gaza: A mother's traumatic journey through childbirth under Israeli bombing Read More » According to the report, a lack of pain relief medication particularly impacted women who had undergone Cesarean sections, who were forced to endure the procedure without it. Medical personnel reported that the combined lack of space, medication and equipment was resulting in an increasing number of maternal deaths. Meanwhile, the inaccessibility of healthcare services compelled many women to resort to unsafe deliveries at homes or in shelters. 'She was left there bleeding' The commission found that the surge in female fatalities in the strip since October - over double the proportion of deaths in the 2008 conflict - is also driven by the increased use of heavy aerial bombardment and the targeting of residential buildings, which disproportionately impacts women. It noted that the spike could also be due to the Israeli military's strategy of targeting private homes with the stated aim of killing militants, resulting in entire families killed together. A lactation consultant in Gaza told the commission of a new mother who was killed with her twins in August 2024: 'One of my patients had just given birth to twins when her apartment was attacked. The attack happened while the father was at a local government office to register the birth. 'The woman and her newborns were killed instantly in the attack. The grief following her death was amplified by the fact that there was no militant in sight.' Israeli drones shooting children in Gaza deliberately 'day after day', UK surgeon tells MPs Read More » The commission also cites multiple cases of the 'deliberate targeting and killing of civilian women and girls' by Israeli forces in Gaza. A witness from al-Awda hospital reported that they saw a pregnant woman being shot and killed as she was approaching the hospital. 'She was left there bleeding. Nobody managed to rescue her as the hospital was under siege by the Israeli forces. She was found in a decomposed state about 20 days later,' they said. The report also found a 'deplorable increase in sexual and gender based violence' employed against Palestinian women, men, girls and boys across occupied Palestine since 7 October 2023 to 'terrorise them and perpetuate a system of oppression that undermines their right to self determination'. The report details how some acts of sexual gender-based violence, including forced public stripping, form part of the Israeli security forces' standard operating procedures, while others, including rape and violence to genitals, were committed 'under explicit orders or with implicit encouragement' by Israel's top civilian and military leadership.
Sky News
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Israel accused of 'genocidal acts' against Palestinians during Gaza war in United Nations report
Israel has been accused of carrying out "genocidal acts" against Palestinians during the Gaza conflict in a United Nations report. It alleges a broad range of violations perpetrated against Palestinian women, men, girls and boys since 7 October 2023 - which Israel has denied and rejected. "Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group," said the report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. It alleges this was done by systematically destroying women's healthcare facilities during the war in Gaza, and by "imposing measures intended to prevent births" - one of the categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention. In addition, a surge in maternity deaths due to restricted access to medical supplies amounted to the crime against humanity of extermination, it said. The report said: "Hundreds of Palestinian men and boys have been photographed and filmed in humiliating and degrading circumstances while subjected to acts of a sexual nature, including forced public nudity and stripping, full or partial." "Male detainees were subjected to attacks targeting their sexual and reproductive organs, including violence to their genitals...," it added. The commission alleged these and other forms of "sexualised torture" are "committed with either explicit orders or an implicit encouragement by the top civilian and military leadership". "The evidence collected by the commission reveals a deplorable increase in sexual and gender-based violence," said its chair Navi Pillay. "There is no escape from the conclusion that Israel has employed sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians to terrorise them and perpetuate a system of oppression that undermines their right to self-determination." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the report's findings, saying they were biased and antisemitic. "Instead of focusing on the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Hamas terrorist organisation... the United Nations once again chooses to attack the state of Israel with false accusations," he said in a statement. Israel's permanent mission to the UN in Geneva also refuted the allegations as unfounded, biased, and lacking credibility. "The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) has concrete directives... and policies which unequivocally prohibit such misconduct," it said in a statement, adding its review processes are in line with international standards. A previous report by the commission in June last year accused Hamas and other Palestinian armed militant groups of serious rights violations in its 7 October 2023 multi-pronged surprise attack on southern Israel, including torture and degrading treatment. Israel is party to the Genocide Convention and was ordered in January 2024 by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take action to prevent acts of genocide during its war against Hamas. South Africa has brought a genocide case against Israel's actions in Gaza at the ICJ. Israel is not party to the Rome Statute, which gives the International Criminal Court (ICC) jurisdiction to rule on individual criminal cases involving genocide and crimes against humanity.
