The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Press Conferences , Edited News | HRC
HRC - Press Conference: Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory 13 March 2025
Rights probe alleges Israeli forces’ sexual violence against Palestinians used as a method of war
Senior human rights investigators reporting to the Human Rights Council alleged on Thursday that sexual and gender-based violence by Israeli security forces against Palestinian men, women and children have been increasingly used “as a method of war” following the 7 October 2023 attacks that sparked the Gaza war.
“Israel has increasingly employed sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinians as part of a broader effort to undermine their right to self-determination,” maintained Chris Sidoti from the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
Speaking in Geneva, the human rights lawyer said that “the frequency, prevalence and severity of sexual and gender-based crimes perpetrated across the OPT leads the Commission to conclude that sexual and gender-based violence is increasingly used as a method of war by Israel to destabilize, dominate, oppress and destroy the Palestinian people”.
Established by the Council in May 2021, the Commission has a mandate to investigate and report on alleged violations of international law in the OPT, including East Jerusalem - and in Israel. Previous reports have covered in detail the terror attacks on Israeli villages and towns on 7 and 8 October by Hamas-led Palestinian armed fighters that killed around 1,250 people and left more than 250 taken as hostages back to Gaza.
Publication of the Commission’s report followed two days of public hearings held in Geneva from 11 to 12 March, featuring victims and witnesses of sexual and reproductive violence and medical personnel who assisted them, as well as civil society representatives, academics, lawyers and medical experts.
Mr. Sidoti said that the Commission had made several requests to the Israeli authorities for information on specific, serious cases of sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinian prisoners taken from Gaza. But no information has been provided about prosecutions of members of the Israeli security forces or Israeli settlers for sexual and violence committed since October 2023, he told journalists.
In a statement accompanying the release of the Commission’s report, it asserted that “forced public stripping and nudity, sexual harassment including threats of rape, as well as sexual assault” were “standard operating procedure” of the Israeli Security Forces toward Palestinians.
“Other forms of sexual and gender-based violence, including rape and violence to the genitals, were committed either under explicit orders or with implicit encouragement by Israel’s top civilian and military leadership,” the report maintained.”
“We heard evidence - you would have heard it if you were looking at our hearings during the last two days - where men and boys were forced to strip wholly or almost wholly, that is down to underpants and then were kept in that condition, often having to sit on stones on the ground in the cold in winter for up to three days.”
The Commission also asserted that Israeli forces had systematically destroyed sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities across Gaza, including Gaza's largest fertility clinic, Al Basma centre, in December 2023.
Tank shelling destroyed about 4,000 embryos at the clinic that reportedly assisted 2,000-3,000 patients a month.
“There is a question about whether those who were firing the tank shell - because our conclusion is that it was destroyed by a tank shell - knew at that time that it was a fertility clinic,” Mr. Sidoti said. “But certainly their commanders knew and the commanders would have known that there were tanks operating within that vicinity and firing on buildings and fired on a healthcare facility that was clearly marked.”
The Commission’s report finds that the destruction amounts “to two categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention, including deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians and imposing measures intended to prevent births”.
Head of the Commission, Navi Pillay, said in a statement that the targeting of reproductive healthcare facilities including “direct attacks” on maternity wards and the IVF clinic, “combined with the use of starvation as a method of war, has impacted all aspects of reproduction…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.”
Israel ‘categorically rejects’ allegations
In a press release published on Wednesday, the Israeli mission in Geneva said their Government “categorically rejects the unfounded allegations” made in the commission’s report.
Israel accused the COI of instrumentalising sexual violence “to advance its predetermined and biased political agenda, setting back the important work of international institutions to combat the perpetration of these abhorrent acts as a weapon of war.”
STORY: Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory
TRT: 03’37”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 13 March 2025 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Speaker: Chris Sidoti, Member of the Commission
SHOTLIST
- Exterior medium shot: Palais des Nations, Flag Alley.
- Wide shot of the Press room, podium speakers, journalists at UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Chris Sidoti, Commissioner: “Our report finds that Israel has increasingly employed sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinians as part of a broader effort to undermine their right to self-determination. It also concludes that Israel has carried out genocidal acts through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities.”
- Medium shot of podium speakers, TV screen showing Commissioner.
- SOUNDBITE (English) - Chris Sidoti, Commissioner: “The frequency, prevalence and severity of sexual and gender-based crimes perpetrated across the Occupied Palestinian Territory leads the Commission to conclude that sexual and gender-based violence is increasingly used as a method of war by Israel to destabilize, dominate, oppress and destroy the Palestinian people.”
- Wide, photographer, journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (English) - Chris Sidoti, Commissioner: “The Commission documented a pattern of sexual violence, including cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture and other inhumane acts that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
- Medium, Press room, TV screens showing Commissioner.
- SOUNDBITE (English) - Chris Sidoti, Commissioner: “We have not made any finding of genocide; we have identified a number of acts that constitute the categories of genocidal act under the law, we have not yet examined the question of genocidal purpose.”
- Wide, Press room, photographer and journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Chris Sidoti, Commissioner: “Several requests for information and access were sent to the Government of Israel, including requests for information on specific cases of sexual and gender-based violence carried out by members of the Israeli security forces. The Commission has not received any information about prosecutions of members of the Israeli security forces or Israeli settlers for sexual and violence committed since October 2023.”
- Medium-wide, journalists, photographer.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Chris Sidoti, Commissioner: “We heard evidence - you would have heard it if you were looking at our hearings during the last two days - where men and boys were forced to strip wholly or almost wholly, that is down to underpants and then were kept in that condition, often having to sit on stones on the ground in the cold in winter for up to three days.”
- Medium, photographer, TV screen showing Commissioner.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Chris Sidoti, Commissioner: “There is a question about whether those who were firing the tank shell - because our conclusion is that it was destroyed by a tank shell - knew at that time that it was a fertility clinic, but certainly their commanders knew and the commanders would have known that there were tanks operating within that vicinity and firing on buildings and fired on a healthcare facility that was clearly marked.”
- Medium-wide, photographer, journalists, TV journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Chris Sidoti, Commissioner: “Victims of human rights violations are entitled to have their experience recorded and known, acknowledged and at the very least, we're doing that. But we don't have the capacity, we're not a court, we want the courts to act, we want states to act, we want the United Nations to act.”
- Medium-wide, TV journalists, control booths.
- Medium-wide, journalists.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | FAO , UNHCR , WHO
Sudan: 14 million displaced; hunger and attacks on health continue as war enters fourth year
As Sudan approaches the third anniversary of a brutal civil war, millions remain displaced and hungry while the health system lies in ruins, with no end to the violence in sight, UN agencies said on Friday.
1
1
1
Press Conferences
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, chaired the hybrid briefing, which was attended by spokespersons and representatives from the World Food Programme, UN Women, World Health Organization, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the Food and Agriculture Organization.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO , UNHCR , WFP
Lebanon: People ‘still under the rubble’ after massive strikes as ambulances, hospitals come under threat – UN humanitarians
With Lebanon still reeling from Israel’s devastating airstrikes on 8 April, UN humanitarians reported new fears of attacks on ambulances and looming food shortages in the south of the country on Friday.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | UNHCR , WHO
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) at Geneva, chaired a hybrid press briefing, which was attended by spokespersons and representatives of the World Health Organization and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR , WHO
Lebanon: disease risks on the rise as displacement surges
With displacement in Lebanon past the one million mark, UN humanitarians warned on Tuesday about the spread of infectious diseases in shelters and surging mental health needs.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNIFIL
UN peacekeepers are supporting civilians who’ve chosen to stay in the south amid deadly dangers from Israel-Hezbollah clashes, UNIFIL spokesperson Kandace Ardiel tells us.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR , WFP
Middle East war fallout: Hundreds of thousands flee Lebanon to Syria; vital food aid blocked – UN agencies
The trauma of mass displacement and humanitarian supply chain disruptions throughout the world are among the devastating impacts of the war raging in the Middle East, UN humanitarians warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | IOM , UNHCR , UNOG , WFP
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid press briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons and representatives of the United Nations Refugee Agency, the World Food Programme, and the International Organization for Migration.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | UNRWA
End-of-tenure press briefing by the outgoing UNRWA Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA
Bitterness, sadness and pride for UNRWA staff, says departing chief
Asking the softly spoken, veteran humanitarian worker Philippe Lazzarini how he feels as he comes to the end of his second term as the head of the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, is perhaps an unfair question.
1
1
1
Edited News | IFRC , UN WOMEN , UNHCR , UNICEF , WHO
Middle East war causes civilian terror and disrupts aid, but some relief efforts resume.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | UNICEF , UN WOMEN , UNHCR , IFRC , IOM , WHO
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid press briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons and representatives of the United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the International Organization for Migration, UN Women, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.