Report
Report: Israel is committing ‘genocidal acts’ against women and children in Gaza
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory's conclusions are based on the testimonies of victims, analysis of footage shot by Palestinians, footage shared on social media by Israeli soldiers, and information provided by civil society NGOs focused on women's rights.
Israel has turned Gaza into a land of horrors for Palestinian women, a place where they have to give birth via video tutorials, where there is no medication for C-sections, and where fertility clinics have been purposely destroyed, along with unfertilized embryos and eggs.
The report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory holds Tel Aviv responsible for heinous, vicious crimes, “genocidal acts … calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza as a group.” It focuses on sexual, reproductive and gender-based violence, recognized as the worst crimes by the Rome Statute, the international treaty establishing the International Criminal Court.
The committee's conclusions are based on the testimonies of victims, analysis of footage shot by Palestinians, footage shared on social media by Israeli soldiers, and information provided by civil society NGOs focused on women's rights. Thirty three percent of all Palestinian victims recorded in Gaza from October 7, 2023 to January 2025 are female, including both adults and children. Like Nahida and Samar Anton, a mother and daughter killed by Israeli snipers as they tried to reach the bathroom. Or like the pregnant woman, whose identity is not even known, who was shot by soldiers as she tried to enter Al-Awda Hospital. Or like little Hind Rajab, her cousins and aunt, who were killed in what the Committee described as a “deliberately targeted” tank attack.
“More than a human can bear” is the title of the final report on the work of the group established in 2021 by the UN Human Rights Council. Direct attacks on the maternity wards of the few hospitals that still remained active in Gaza have made pregnancy and childbirth extremely dangerous. Between Oct. 7 and Dec. 23, 2023, Al-Awda Hospital treated 15,577 obstetric patients despite having only 75 available beds. The intentional destruction of the Strip's largest fertility clinic, which served 2,000-3,000 patients each month, resulted in the loss of all stored materials.
“Giving birth in Gaza is like giving birth in the Middle Ages,” the Committee writes. There is no access to care, there are no instruments or drugs, which is why miscarriages and deaths have increased. Without anesthetics, female patients had to endure the pain of a cesarean section, and the risk of infection remained extremely high. Midwives informed investigators that some women gave birth at home, preparing themselves through videos found on the Internet, assisted only by their husbands. In addition, the report explained, Israel has continued to operate a blockade of humanitarian aid that has led to extremely severe consequences for the survival of pregnant women and those who had just given birth.
In addition to reproductive violence, sexual violence has also been used on women, and men too, as part of standard operating procedures to punish the population. Rape and rape threats are being used against Palestinian detainees, male and female, as well as female family members. Sexual violence is also increasingly used in the occupied West Bank, by settlers and the military, “intended to humiliate and degrade the victims and the Palestinian community at large.” Measures to prevent births within a group and attempts to cause their physical destruction constitute, according to the report's conclusions, “categories of genocidal acts.”
The Commission, headed by Navi Pillay, former International Criminal Court judge and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, holds the Israeli leaders directly responsible, who have continued to engage in exculpatory statements and actions, “in some cases legitimizing rape and other forms of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees,” and the Israeli justice system which “does not meet international standards of justice with respect to its application to Palestinians” and “should not be relied upon to deal with accountability for Israeli civilian and military personnel in relation to Palestinians.”
In response to the report, Netanyahu accused the Human Rights Council of being “an anti-Israel circus,” “antisemitic” and “a council of blood libels.” The Foreign Minister called the report “one of the worst cases of blood libel the world has ever seen” and stressing that “Hamas is the organization that committed horrific sexual crimes against Israelis.” Another UN commission reported in March 2024 that there was “convincing information” that Hamas committed sexual violence during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. The Foreign Ministry in Tel Aviv welcomed that report and declared that it represented “definitive recognition” of the Islamic movement's crimes. The latter rejected the accusations, complaining that the report did not include any testimonies of victims.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/la-striscia-degli-orrori-atti-genocidari-su-donne-e-bambini on 2025-03-14