UN experts accuse Israel of 'genocidal acts' in Gaza, sparking outcry

A UN report published Thursday claims that Israel committed "acts of genocide" and used sexual violence against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Conducted by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, the study accuses Israel of preventing births in Gaza through the "systematically destroyed sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities across Gaza."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the report, saying that "The anti-Israel circus known as the UN 'Human Rights Council' has long been revealed as an antisemitic, rotten and irrelevant organization that supports terrorism. For good reason Israel decided to quit it approximately one month ago. Instead of focusing on the crimes against humanity and the war crimes that were perpetrated by the Hamas terrorist organization in the worst massacre carried out against the Jewish People since the Holocaust, the UN has again chosen to attack the State of Israel with false accusations, including baseless accusations of sexual violence. This is not a human rights council; it is a blood rights council."

"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," the committee said.

The Permanent Representation of Israel to the UN in Geneva has described the allegations in the report as baseless, biased and lacking credibility.

"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 report said.

These actions, in addition to an increase in the number of cases of maternal deaths due to limited access to medical equipment, constitute a crime against humanity, the UN experts said.

"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

"The IDF has specific guidelines and a policy that categorically prohibits such inappropriate behavior," responded the Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN in Geneva, adding that its inspection processes are in line with international standards.