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.
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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.
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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.
Arrest warrants for Mr Netanyahu, former defence secretary Yoav Gallant – and senior Hamas commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al Masri – were issued by the ICC in November over alleged war crimes.
