‘Genocidal acts’: UN report accuses Israel of destroying women’s healthcare facilities

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Key Points
  • A United Nations report alleges Israel systematically destroyed women’s healthcare facilities in Gaza.
  • The report also alleges Israel carried out “genocidal acts” and used sexual violence as a war strategy.
  • Israel rejected the accusations and said the report was biased and lacked credibility.
Israel carried out “genocidal acts” against Palestinians by systematically destroying women’s healthcare facilities during, and used sexual violence as a , United Nations (UN) experts said in a new report released overnight.

“Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, including by imposing measures intended to prevent births, one of the categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention,” said the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.

Those actions, in addition to a surge in maternity deaths due to restricted access to medical supplies, amounted to the crime against humanity of extermination, the commission said.
Israel’s permanent mission to the UN in Geneva described allegations in the report as unfounded, bias, and lacking credibility.

The report accused Israel’s security forces of using forced public stripping and sexual assault as part of their standard operating procedures to punish Palestinians following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel in October 2023.

Israel rejected the accusations, saying in a statement: “The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) has concrete directives … and policies which unequivocally prohibit such misconduct.”
It added that its review processes are in line with international standards.

A previous report published by the Commission in June 2024 accused Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups of serious rights violations in its October 7 2023 attack, including torture and degrading treatment.

Israel cuts off electricity to Gaza as ceasefire negotiations resume image

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 the war against Hamas.
It is not party to the Rome Statute, which gives the International Criminal Court jurisdiction to rule on individual criminal cases involving genocide and crimes against humanity.

South Africa has brought a genocide case against Israel’s actions in Gaza at the ICJ.

Hamas militants carried out a cross-border raid into southern Israel on October 7 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

That triggered a devastating war in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.

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