UN Experts Say Israel ‘Intentionally Attacked and Destroyed’ Gaza’s Main Fertility Center
Israel has committed "genocidal acts" against Palestinians by systematically targeting women’s healthcare facilities during its ongoing war on Gaza and using sexual violence as a war strategy, according to United Nations experts.
On Thursday, the Geneva-based Independent International Commission of Inquiry stated in a new report that Israel “intentionally attacked and destroyed” Gaza’s main fertility center while simultaneously blocking the entry of medicines for pregnancies, deliveries, and neonatal care into the enclave.
The commission’s report found that Israeli authorities “have destroyed … the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare.” It added that these actions amount to “two categories of genocidal acts” during Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which was launched in response to Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
In response, Israel’s mission in Geneva dismissed the allegations, stating that it “categorically rejects the unfounded accusations.” Israel also accused the commission, established in May 2021, of promoting a “predetermined and biased political agenda … to incriminate the Israel Defense Forces.”
‘War Crime of Wilful Killing’
The report highlighted that maternity hospitals and wards in Gaza, along with the Al-Basma IVF Center—the territory’s main in-vitro fertility clinic—had been systematically destroyed. It noted that the Al-Basma clinic was intentionally shelled in December 2023, destroying approximately 4,000 embryos. The clinic had served 2,000 to 3,000 patients per month.
The commission found no credible evidence that the facility was used for military purposes and concluded that its destruction “was a measure intended to prevent births among Palestinians in Gaza, which is a genocidal act.”
The report was released after the commission held public hearings in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday, where victims and witnesses of sexual violence testified. The commission concluded that Israel had directly targeted civilian women and girls, actions that constitute “the crime against humanity of murder and the war crime of wilful killing.”
Additionally, the report stated that forced public stripping, nudity, sexual harassment—including threats of rape—and sexual assault are part of the Israeli forces’ “standard operating procedures” towards Palestinians.
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