U.N. report accuses Israeli forces of “genocidal acts,” sexual violence in Gaza and West Bank

Tel Aviv — A United Nations report published Thursday accuses Israeli military forces of engaging in “sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinians” in the war-torn Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank since Hamas’ terror attacks against Israel on October 7th, 2023. The U.N. Human Rights Council’s report also claims Israel’s troops have committed “genocidal acts” in the war against Hamas, which was sparked by the U.S. and Israeli designated terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. 

In making the latter claim, the council cited what it called the “systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities” including maternity wards and Gaza’s primary in-vitro fertility clinic. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement shared by his office, quickly and angrily refuted the report and attacked the council as an “anti-Semitic, rotten, terrorist-supporting and irrelevant body.”

“The U.N. is once again choosing to attack the State of Israel with false accusations, including unfounded accusations of sexual violence,” the statement said.

“It is one of the worst cases of blood libel the world has ever seen (and the world has seen many),” said Israel’s Foreign Minister Oren Marmorstein in a post on social media. “It accuses the victims of the crimes committed against them.”

The explosive report was published just over a year after a U.N. expert on sexual violence published a paper accusing Hamas of similar actions, saying there were “reasonable grounds to believe” sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, had occurred at several locations during the Hamas-orchestrated Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

That previous report, by the U.N. special envoy on sexual violence Pramila Patten, said there was also reason to believe sexual abuse of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza was “ongoing.” 

U.N. experts interviewed dozens of witnesses and reviewed thousands of photos and 50 hours of video shot during the terrorist attack, but Patten said the team had been unable to meet with any survivors of sexual violence.

Hamas rejected the allegations.

Navi Pillay, who chairs the U.N. inquiry commission behind the report published Thursday, said it had gathered evidence that “reveals a deplorable increase in sexual and gender-based violence” by Israeli forces. 

“There is no escape from the conclusion that Israel has employed sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians to terrorize them and perpetuate a system of oppression that undermines their right to self-determination,” Pillay said. 

The report documents a broad range of accusations against Israel’s security forces, alleging crimes against Palestinian women and girls, but also men and boys in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. 

The U.N. commission cites incidents of alleged forced public stripping and nudity, sexual harassment, rape and threats of rape and violence to the genitals, which it claims have become “standard operating procedures toward Palestinians” and are “committed either under explicit orders or with implicit encouragement by Israel’s top civilian and military leadership.”

The commission’s findings were published after two days of public hearings in Geneva that included testimony from purported victims, witnesses, medical staff, academics and lawyers.