Tel Aviv – A United Nations report released on Thursday accuses Israeli forces of committing “sexual, reproductive, and other forms” of gender-based violence in the war-torn Gaza Strip, and the occupied West Bank, since Hamas terror attacks against Israel in October 2023. The U.N. Human Rights Council report claims that Israel’s soldiers have also committed “genocidal” acts in the war against Hamas. This war was started by Hamas’ terror attack on Israel, Oct. 7, 2023.
The council made this claim based on what it described as the “systematic destruction” of sexual and reproductive health facilities, including maternity wards in Gaza and the primary in-vitro fertilisation clinic.
In a public statement, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, angrily and quickly refuted the report. He called the council “anti-Semitic and rotten” and a “terrorist-supporting, irrelevant, and anti-Semitic body.”
The statement read: “The U.N. has chosen to once again attack Israel with false allegations, including unfounded claims of sexual violence.”
In a social media post, Israel’s foreign minister Oren Marmorstein said: “It’s one of the worst blood libel cases the world has ever witnessed (and there have been many).” It accuses victims of crimes committed against them.
The explosive report came out just a little over a year ago, after a U.N. sexual violence expert published a paper that accused Hamas for similar actions. He said there were “reasonable reasons to believe” that sexual violence including rapes and gang-rapes had taken place at various locations during the Hamas orchestrated terrorist attack on Oct. 7.
The previous report by U.N. Special Envoy Pramila Patten on sexual violence said that there were also reasons to believe that sexual abuse of Israeli hosts still held in Gaza is “ongoing.”
U.N. experts have interviewed dozens witnesses, reviewed thousands of photographs and 50 hours video taken during the terrorist attacks. However, Patten stated that the team was unable to speak with survivors of sexual assault.
Hamas has denied the claims.
Navi Pillay is the chair of the U.N. investigation commission that compiled the report released on Thursday. She said the evidence gathered “reveals an alarming increase in sexual violence and gender-based abuse” by Israeli soldiers.
Pillay stated that “there is no way to escape the conclusion that Israel has used sexual and gender-based violent against Palestinians in order to terrorize and perpetuate an oppressive system that undermines Palestinians’ right to self determination.”
The report contains a wide range of allegations against Israel’s security services, including crimes committed against Palestinian women, girls and boys, as well as men and boys, in Gaza Strip and West Bank occupied by Israel.
The U.N. Commission cites incidents involving alleged forced nudity and public stripping, sexual harassment, rape, and threats of violence against the genitals and rape, which, it says, have become “standard operational procedures” toward Palestinians and are “committed under explicit orders or implicit encouragement from Israel’s top civil and military leadership”.
After two days of hearings, the findings of the commission were released. The testimony included by purported victims, witnesses and medical professionals, as well as academics, lawyers, and legal staff.
