Thursday 13 / March / 2025
Geneva: A UN investigation into the Gaza Strip has confirmed that the Israeli occupation army committed acts of "genocide" through the systematic destruction of reproductive healthcare facilities. The UN Commission of Inquiry, in accordance with the UN Genocide Convention, found that Israeli occupation authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group through the systematic destruction of reproductive healthcare, amounting to two categories of genocidal acts.
The investigation found the occupation involved in two of the five acts defined by the UN Convention as genocide, noting that the Israeli entity was deliberately inflicting conditions of life on the group (the Palestinians) calculated to bring about its physical destruction and imposing measures aimed at preventing births within the group.
In a statement, Chair of the Commission Navi Pillay said: "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." The United Nations' genocide convention defines that crime as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.
The three-person Independent International Commission of Inquiry was established by the UN Human Rights Council in May 2021 to investigate alleged international law violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
