A UN expert committee accuses Israel of “acts of genocide” aimed at the extermination of Palestinians in Gaza by preventing them from having children [1], [2]. Genocide is defined by the UN as a crime “committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.” The UN has previously referred to “acts of genocide” in Gaza, while major humanitarian organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have acknowledged “acts of genocide.”
In its report, the committee identified as acts of genocide the systematic attacks on reproductive health units that were not proven to be military targets, as well as the deliberate creation of conditions (blocking humanitarian aid, destroying hospitals) that led to an increase in deaths of women due to pregnancy and childbirth complications. The report also described sexual violence and the public stripping of Palestinians as a “common practice” of the Israeli army.
The UN has previously mentioned genocide in Gaza, while humanitarian organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have acknowledged “acts of genocide.”
The special committee, established by the Human Rights Council in 2021 and composed of three lawyers with expertise in human rights, stated that its report was based on previous investigations conducted after Hamas’s attack on Israel, as well as on about 25 interviews in recent months with healthcare workers, victims, and witnesses of the violence in Gaza.
Israel withdrew from the Human Rights Council in February, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the report’s findings as biased and antisemitic.
