UN: Israel’s attacks on Gaza’s reproductive centers ‘genocidal’
People gather by a banner welcoming people near the rubble of a collapsed building along Gaza’s coastal al-Rashid Street for people to cross from the Israeli-blocked Netzarim corridor from the southern Gaza Strip into Gaza City on January 26, 2025. Israel said on January 25 it would block the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza until Arbel Yehud, one of the hostages taken captive during the October 7, 2023 attacks, is released. Hamas sources said that Yehud was “alive and in good health”, and would be “released as part of the third swap set for next Saturday”, on February 1. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
MANILA, Philippines – Israel’s systematic attacks on women’s sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities in Gaza are “genocidal acts,” according to a United Nations (UN) report released on Thursday.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory reported that Israeli forces executed the systematic attack by preventing “humanitarian assistance, including the provision of necessary medication and equipment to ensure safe pregnancies, deliveries, and post-partum and neonatal care.”
“The evidence collected by the Commission reveals a deplorable increase in sexual and gender-based violence,” said Commission Chair Navi Pillay.
“There is no escape from the conclusion that Israel has employed sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians to terrorize them and perpetuate a system of oppression that undermines their right to self-determination,” she added.
The UN commission also reported that many Palestinian women passed away due to pregnancy and childbirth-related complications, making Israel’s deliberate destruction of the necessary facilities a crime against humanity of extermination.
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“The targeting of reproductive healthcare facilities, including through direct attacks on maternity wards and Gaza’s main in-vitro fertility clinic, combined with the use of starvation as a method of war, has impacted all aspects of reproduction,” Pillay said.
The report also showed that the violations may have long-term effects on Palestinians both on their mental health and their fertility prospects. The commission’s detailed report can be found here.
In January 2024, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to prevent genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The order said Israel must enable distribution of basic services and humanitarian assistance, and prevent incitement to commit genocide. Keith Irish Margareth Clores, INQUIRER.net trainee
