A new United Nations report indicates that Israel has used sexual and sexist violence as a war strategy in Gaza and has carried out “genocidal acts” against the Palestinians by the systematic destruction of women’s health establishments.
In a report published Thursday, the United Nations International International Inquiry in the Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem-Est and Israel, examined the general destruction of the territory, the use of heavy explosives in civil zones and Israeli attacks on hospitals and health establishments.
THE 49 -page report found that the three factors led to “disproportionate violence against women and children”.
“The evidence collected by the Commission reveal a deplorable increase in sexual and sexual violence,” said Navi Pillay, President of the Commission and former head of the United Nations Human Rights.
“There is no exhaust for the conclusion that Israel used sexual and sexist violence against the Palestinians to terrorize them and perpetuate an oppression system which undermines their right to self -determination.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the report’s conclusions are biased and anti -Semitic.
“Instead of focusing on crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Hamas terrorist organization … The United Nations chooses once again to attack the State of Israel with false accusations,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
Distributed Palestinian reproduction capacity: report
The Israeli authorities have “partly destroyed the reproduction capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group”, according to the report.
The destruction of the reproduction capacity amounts to two categories of genocidal acts in the status of Rome and to the Convention of Genocide: deliberately inflicting the calculated living conditions to cause the physical destruction of the Palestinians; and imposing measures intended to prevent births.
These actions, in addition to an increase in maternity deaths due to limited access to medical supplies, have formed the crime against extermination humanity, the Commission said.
An orphan little girl in Gaza, who hung on to life after being drawn from the belly of her dying mother after an Israeli air strike, died.
“The use by Israel of famine as a method of war, the denial of humanitarian aid and the concerted policy aimed at destroying the Gaza health system, aggravated by the lack of water and access to sanitation facilities, caused serious reproductive damage to women and girls, impacting all aspects of reproduction, in particular pregnancy, child, postpartum recovery and lactations.” declared pregnancy.
The report also accused Israel’s security forces of using forced public undress and sexual assault as part of their standard operational procedures to punish the Palestinians following the attacks led by Hamas against southern Israel in October 2023.
The war resulting in the Gaza Strip killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
During a series of hearings held by the Commission this week in Geneva, a Nurse from Gaza, identified only as indicated for her protection, said the Israeli forces had kidnapped him and had him undressed publicly to his underwear. During his captivity, he was beaten in the genitals, he said.
“This is physical violence, but it is also psychological abuses. It is designed to humiliate,” said Chris Sidoti, one of the three members of a commission of inquiry into the abuse committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
IDF says that policies “prohibit such misconduct”
The Commission also accused Israeli security forces of rape and sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners. Israel denies any systematic abuse of prisoners and says that he takes action when there are violations.
Israel, who disengaged from the Human Rights Council in February, rejected the accusations.
“IDF [Israeli Defence Force] To concrete directives … and policies which unequivocally prohibit such misconduct “,” the permanent mission to the UN in Geneva responded in a press release, adding that its examination processes comply with international standards.
Palestinian officials say that people in Gaza may soon lack drinking water. After Israel cut the supply of electricity to Gaza this weekend, a desalination plant in Deir al-Balah operated at around 30% on emergency generators.
A previous report published by the Commission in June 2024 accused Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups of serious violations of rights in the attacks of 2023, which killed 1,200 people and resulted in 251 hostages, according to Israeli accounts.
In March of last year, a team of United Nations experts said that there were “reasonable reasons for believing” sexual violence, including rape, had occurred in several places in the assault of the militant group.
Commission’s conclusions can be used as proof for the International Criminal Court or other organizations seeking to continue war crimes.
South Africa, which carried a case of genocide against the actions of Israel in Gaza to the International Court of Justice, alleged that the Israeli military operation in Gaza was “of genocidal character” and intended to cause the destruction of the Palestinian people in the besieged territory.
Israel went to the Convention of Genocide and was ordered in January 2024 by the International Court of Justice to take measures to prevent acts of genocide during the war against Hamas.
He is not a party to the law of Rome, which gives the international jurisdiction of the criminal court to reign over individual criminal affairs involving genocide and crimes against humanity.
