DaysofPal- The UN Commission of Inquiry has accused Israel of committing “genocidal acts” in Gaza, specifically targeting reproductive healthcare facilities during its ongoing military campaign.
In its report, the commission asserts that Israel “intentionally attacked and destroyed” the Palestinian territory’s primary fertility center while simultaneously imposing a siege and blocking crucial humanitarian aid, including medications necessary for safe pregnancies, deliveries, and neonatal care.
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.” This, according to the inquiry, constitutes “two categories of genocidal acts” during Israel’s war in Gaza. These acts are identified as “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction” and “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”
“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,” said Navi Pillay, the chair of the commission, in a statement.
Israel has categorically rejected the allegations, with its mission in Geneva responding to the report. However, the commission’s findings are stark, stating that maternity hospitals, wards, and clinics have been systematically destroyed, including the Al-Basma IVF Centre, Gaza’s primary in-vitro fertility clinic. The center, which served 2,000 to 3,000 patients a month, was shelled in December 2023, reportedly destroying around 4,000 embryos. The commission found that this attack was deliberate, with no credible evidence suggesting that the facility was used for military purposes. The destruction of the center, it concluded, was “a measure intended to prevent births among Palestinians in Gaza, which is a genocidal act.”
Furthermore, the report highlights the widespread harm to pregnant, lactating, and new mothers in Gaza, noting that the impact has been “unprecedented in scale” and has had irreversible consequences on the reproductive health and fertility of Palestinians. These acts, the commission asserts, “amount to crimes against humanity” and demonstrate a deliberate attempt to destroy Palestinians as a group.
The findings come after the commission conducted public hearings in Geneva, where victims and witnesses of sexual violence provided testimony. The investigation found that Israel had committed the war crime of willful killing and the crime against humanity of murder by deliberately targeting civilian women and girls.
The commission also pointed out that the terrible conditions established by the Israeli government have resulted in the deaths of women and girls from pregnancy and childbirth complications, which further amounts to the crime against humanity of extermination.
The report denounces what it calls Israeli forces’ “standard operating procedures” toward Palestinians, including the destruction of medical facilities. This includes forced public stripping, sexual harassment, threats of rape, and sexual assault, all of which the commission argues contribute to a broader pattern of abuse against Palestinian women and girls.
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