UN officials claim Israel intentionally destroyed the Palestinian territory’s primary fertility center.
Israel has committed “genocidal acts” against Palestinians by systematically targeting and destroying women’s healthcare facilities during its conflict in Gaza and employing sexual violence as a strategic weapon, according to United Nations experts.
In a report released by the Geneva-based Independent International Commission of Inquiry, it is stated that Israel “intentionally attacked and destroyed” Gaza’s main fertility center while also preventing medicine essential for pregnancies, deliveries, and neonatal care from entering the Gaza Strip.
The commission’s report asserts that Israeli authorities have undermined “the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group through the systematic annihilation of sexual and reproductive healthcare,” characterizing these actions as “two categories of genocidal acts” during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, initiated after Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Israeli authorities have “categorically rejected the unfounded allegations,” as stated by their mission in Geneva.
Israel has also accused the commission, established in May 2021, of promoting “a predetermined and biased political agenda … to incriminate the Israel Defense Forces”.
‘Crime of Intentional Killing’
The report highlights that maternity hospitals and wards have been systematically destroyed in Gaza, along with the Al-Basma IVF Centre, the main in-vitro fertility clinic in the region.
It mentions that Al-Basma was intentionally targeted with shelling in December 2023, leading to the destruction of approximately 4,000 embryos and affecting around 2,000-3,000 patients monthly.
The commission has found no credible evidence that the facility was used for military purposes.
The report suggests the destruction “was a measure intended to prevent births among Palestinians in Gaza, which is a genocidal act”.
The report follows public hearings conducted in Geneva by the commission, which included testimony from victims and witnesses of sexual violence.
The commission concluded that Israel targeted civilian women and girls directly, “acts that constitute the crime against humanity of murder and the war crime of wilful killing”.
It also asserts that forced public stripping and nudity, sexual harassment including threats of rape, and sexual assault, are part of the “standard operating procedures” of Israeli forces towards Palestinians.
