UN inquiry concludes that Israel used 'systematic sexual violence' in Gaza

Israel has committed “genocidal acts” through the systematic destruction of women’s healthcare facilities in Gaza, UN experts said in a major new report on Thursday.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, found that Israel’s systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities, coupled with restricted medical supplies, resulted in a surge in maternal deaths, and is therefore tantamount to the crime of extermination.

Additionally, the report said that Israel’s direct targeting of women’s healthcare facilities has resulted in “irreversible long-term effects on the mental health and reproductive and fertility prospects of Palestinians as a group”. 

This, the commission concluded, amounts to two categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention.

They include deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians and imposing measures intended to prevent births. 

Read more: UN inquiry concludes that Israel used 'systematic sexual violence' in Gaza