“More than a human can bear”: Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since October 2023

Human Wrongs Watch

The report documents a broad range of violations perpetrated against Palestinian women, men, girls and boys across the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 7 October 2023 that constitutes a major element in the ill-treatment of Palestinians and are part of the unlawful occupation and persecution of Palestinians as a group.  

“The evidence collected by the Commission reveals a deplorable increase in sexual and gender-based violence,” said Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission.

“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 release of the report was accompanied by two days of public hearings held in Geneva on 11-12 March, during which the Commission heard from victims and witnesses of sexual and reproductive violence and medical personnel who assisted them, as well as representatives from civil society, academics, lawyers and medical experts. 

The report found that sexual and gender-based violence – which has risen in frequency and severity – is being perpetrated across the Occupied Palestinian Territory as a strategy of war for Israel to dominate and destroy the Palestinian people.

Specific forms of sexual and gender-based violence – such as forced public stripping and nudity, sexual harassment including threats of rape, as well as sexual assault – comprise part of the Israeli Security Forces’ standard operating procedures toward Palestinians. 

Other forms of sexual and gender-based violence, including rape and violence to the genitals, were committed either under explicit orders or with implicit encouragement by Israel’s top civilian and military leadership, the report said. 

A climate of impunity also exists with regard to sexual and gender-based crimes committed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, with the aim of instilling fear into the Palestinian community and expelling them.

“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 Israeli Security Forces that they can continue committing such acts without fear of accountability,” said Pillay.

“In this context, accountability through the International Criminal Court and national courts, through their domestic law or exercising universal jurisdiction, is essential if the rule of law is to be upheld and victims awarded justice.”

The Commission found that Israeli forces have systematically destroyed sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities across Gaza.

They have simultaneously imposed a siege and prevented humanitarian assistance, including the provision of necessary medication and equipment to ensure safe pregnancies, deliveries and post-partum and neonatal care.

These acts violate women’s and girls’ reproductive rights and autonomy, as well as their right to life, health, founding a family, human dignity, physical and mental integrity, freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, and self-determination and the principle of non-discrimination. 

Women and girls have died from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth due to the conditions imposed by the Israeli authorities which have denied access to reproductive health care – acts which amount to the crime against humanity of extermination. 

The Commission found that Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare, amounting to two categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention, including deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians and imposing measures intended to prevent births.    

“The targeting of reproductive healthcare facilities, including through direct attacks on maternity wards and Gaza’s main in-vitro fertility clinic, combined with the use of starvation as a method of war, has impacted all aspects of reproduction,” said Commissioner Pillay.

“These violations have not only caused severe immediate physical and mental harm and suffering to women and girls, but irreversible long-term effects on the mental health and reproductive and fertility prospects of Palestinians as a group.”

The Commission found an increasing proportion of female fatalities in Gaza, which have occurred at an unprecedented scale as a result of an Israeli strategy of deliberately targeting residential buildings and using heavy explosives in densely populated areas.

The Commission also documented cases in which women and girls of all ages, including maternity patients, were targeted – acts that constitute the crime against humanity of murder and the war crime of wilful killing. 

Learn More:

On the brink: Women in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

The Commission’s detailed report can be found here.

The Commission’s findings on sexual and gender-based violence committed by the military wing of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups on 7 October 2023 can be found here.  

Background: The UN Human Rights Council mandated the Commission on 27 May 2021 to “investigate, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13 April 2021.”

Resolution A/HRC/RES/S-30/1 further requested the Commission of inquiry to “investigate all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity.”

The Commission of Inquiry was mandated to report to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly annually commencing from June 2022 and September 2022, respectively.

*SOURCE: UN Human Rights. Go to ORIGINAL: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/03/more-human-can-bear-israels-systematic-use-sexual-reproductive-and-other 2025 Human Wrongs Watch

Source: https://human-wrongs-watch.net/2025/03/14/more-than-a-human-can-bear-israels-systematic-use-of-sexual-reproductive-and-other-forms-of-gender-based-violence-since-october-2023/