A report published by the United Nations Human Rights Council found that Israeli security forces (ISF) had engaged in systemic sexual and reproductive violence against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
“The evidence collected by the Commission reveals a deplorable increase in sexual and gender-based violence,” said commission 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.”
The report states, “The Commission concludes that there has been a large increase in sexual and gender-based crimes perpetrated against Palestinians by members of the ISF since 7 October 2023.”
It added that the ISF “intended to retaliate and punish them collectively for the attacks carried out by the military wing of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in southern Israel on 7 October.” The commission concluded the abusive acts were so prevalent that they were now a “de facto form part of the ISF standard operating procedures towards Palestinians.”
“The Commission concludes that these and other forms of sexualized torture, including rape and violence targeting the genitals, are committed with either explicit orders or an implicit encouragement by the top civilian and military leadership,” the UN body continued.
The authors of the report argued that the purpose of the sexual humiliation is to psychologically dominate detainees: “The way in which these often-sexual acts are committed, including their filming, photographing and dissemination online, shows that forced public stripping and nudity, as well as sexualised torture and ill-treatment, are part of the persecutory attack against men and boys committed to punish, humiliate and intimidate Palestinian men and boys into subjugation.”
They continue, “The frequency, prevalence and severity of sexual and gender-based crimes perpetrated across the Occupied Palestinian Territory leads the Commission to conclude that sexual and gender-based violence is increasingly used as a method of war by Israel to destabilize, dominate, oppress and destroy the Palestinian people.”
Other UN reports have found that Israeli soldiers used sexual humiliation, beating of genitals and rape against their Palestinian captives.
Most of the abuses go unpunished, creating a culture of impunity. “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 ISF that they can continue committing such acts without fear of accountability,” Pillay said.
The UN report released on Wednesday explains that Israel has systematically shut down the maternity and reproductive centers in Gaza. “Sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities have been systematically destroyed across Gaza, including maternity hospitals and maternity wards of hospitals and Gaza’s main in-vitro fertility clinic,” it said. “Israeli authorities deliberately destroyed such healthcare facilities rendering them non-functional.”
