A COMMISSION by the United Nations (UN) has concluded that Israel is committing “genocidal acts” in Palestine by systematically carrying out acts of sexual violence.
The report found that the frequency and severity of Israel using systematic sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence has risen since October 2023.
It stated the acts of sexual violence being carried out across the Occupied Palestinian Territory is a “strategy of war” for Israel to “dominate and destroy” the Palestinian people.
It documented a broad range of violations perpetrated against Palestinian women, men and children across the Occupied Palestinian Territory since October 7, 2023, which it states constitutes a “major element” in the ill-treatment and part of the unlawful occupation and persecution of Palestinians.
“The evidence collected by the Commission reveals a deplorable increase in sexual and gender-based violence,” said Navi Pillay, chair of the commission.
“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.”
The report coincided with two days of public hearings held in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday this week which the commission heard from victims and witnesses of sexual and reproductive violence and medical personnel who assisted them.
Representatives from civil society, academics, lawyers and medical experts were also present at the hearings.
The commission found specific forms of sexual and gender-based violence, such as forced public stripping and nudity, sexual harassment including threats of rape, as well as sexual assault, were part of the Israeli Security Forces’ standard operating procedures toward Palestinians.
The report added other forms of sexual and gender-based violence, including rape and violence to the genitals, were committed either under explicit orders or with implicit encouragement by Israel’s top civilian and military leadership.
A “climate of impunity” also exists regarding sexual and gender-based crimes committed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, with the aim of instilling fear into the Palestinian community and expelling them, the report said.
Pillay said: “The exculpatory statements and actions by Israeli leaders and the lack of effectiveness shown by the military justice system to prosecute cases and convict perpetrators send a clear message to members of the Israeli Security Forces that they can continue committing such acts without fear of accountability.
“In this context, accountability through the International Criminal Court and national courts, through their domestic law or exercising universal jurisdiction, is essential if the rule of law is to be upheld and victims awarded justice.”
Israeli forces have systematically destroyed sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities across Gaza, the commission said.
Adding, Israel has imposed a siege and prevented humanitarian aid, including the provision of necessary medication and equipment to ensure safe pregnancies, deliveries and post-partum and neonatal care.
According to the British Red Cross, the collapsed health system and its consequences could kill more people than the conflict itself, with only 16 of Gaza's 36 hospitals operational, and just 1822 hospital beds available according to the WHO.
The National is again holding a fundraiser in conjunction with Medical Aid for Palestinians in an effort to help raise vital funding for crucial medical aid.
The report said the acts of sexual violence and the destruction of the health system violate women’s and girls’ reproductive rights and autonomy, as well as their right to life, health, founding a family, human dignity, physical and mental integrity, freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
Adding women and girls have died from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth due to the conditions imposed by the Israeli authorities.
The commission said it found that Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare, amounting to two categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention.
This included deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians and imposing measures intended to prevent births.
“The targeting of reproductive healthcare facilities, including through direct attacks on maternity wards and Gaza’s main in-vitro fertility clinic, combined with the use of starvation as a method of war, has impacted all aspects of reproduction,” said commissioner Pillay.
“These violations have not only caused severe immediate physical and mental harm and suffering to women and girls, but irreversible long-term effects on the mental health and reproductive and fertility prospects of Palestinians as a group.”
The Commission found an increasing proportion of females being killed in Gaza, which have occurred at an “unprecedented scale” because of the Israeli’s strategy of deliberately targeting residential buildings and using heavy explosives in densely populated areas.
The report also documented cases in which women and girls of all ages, including maternity patients, were targeted, acts that constitute the crime against humanity of murder and the war crime of wilful killing.
