UN experts have accused Israel of increasingly using sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians and carrying out “genocidal acts” through the systematic destruction of maternal and reproductive healthcare facilities.
A report commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council documents alleged violations, including rape, in Gaza and the occupied West Bank since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.
It also says the destruction of maternity wards in Gaza and embryos at a fertility clinic could indicate a strategy to prevent births among a particular group – one of the legal definitions of genocide.
Israel said it “categorically rejects the unfounded allegations”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded angrily, calling the Human Rights Council “an antisemitic, rotten, terrorist-supporting and irrelevant body”.
Instead of focusing on war crimes committed by Hamas, he said, it was attacking Israel with “false accusations”.
