GENEVA: United Nations experts have accused Israel of committing genocidal acts and using sexual violence as a war strategy against Palestinians in Gaza, according to a report released on Thursday.
“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.
It said Israel systematically destroyed women’s healthcare facilities during the conflict in Gaza.
The commission stated that these actions, along with a rise in maternal deaths due to limited access to medical supplies, constituted the crime against humanity of extermination.
The report accused Israel’s security forces of making forced public strip searches and sexual assault part of their standard procedures to punish Palestinians following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel in October 2023.
Israel’s permanent mission to the UN in Geneva dismissed the allegations terming them biased and lacking credibility.
“The IDF (Israeli Defence Force) has concrete directives … and policies which unequivocally prohibit such misconduct”, the permanent mission to the UN in Geneva responded in a statement, adding that its review processes are in line with international standards.
Israel is a signatory to the Genocide Convention and was ordered by the International Court of Justice in January 2024 to take steps to prevent acts of genocide during its war against Hamas.
However, Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute, which grants the International Criminal Court jurisdiction over individual criminal cases related to genocide and crimes against humanity.
South Africa has filed a genocide case against Israel’s actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice.
Israel’s war in Gaza which started on October 7, 2023, has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
