On Thursday, an investigation of the United Nations concluded that Israel committed extermination in the Gaza Strip through the systematic destruction of reproductive health care facilities.
The United Nations Investigation Committee reported that Israel has intentionally attacked the main fertility center in the Palestinian sector and imposed a siege simultaneously and prevented aid, including the necessary medicines to ensure the safety of pregnancy, childbirth and child care.
The Israel Mission in Geneva responded by saying that the Hebrew state “categorically rejects unfounded accusations.”
The committee concluded that the Israeli authorities “partially destroyed the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group through the systematic destruction of the reproductive health sector.”
She added that this is up to “two categories of extermination” committed during the Israeli aggression on a sector since October 7, 2023.
The United Nations Convention for Genocide defines this crime as acts that have been committed with the intention of destroying a national, ethnic, religious, religious, or partial group.
The investigation stated that Israel was involved in two of five actions known to the United Nations Convention as “genocide”, noting that the Hebrew state was “intentionally causing life conditions (i.e. the Palestinians) calculated to cause physical destruction” and “imposing measures aimed at preventing births within the group.”
“These violations not only caused a very direct physical and psychological abuse for women and girls, but also led to long -term repercussions that cannot be repaired on mental and reproductive health and fertility opportunities for the Palestinians as a group,” committee chairman Navi Payy said in a statement.
The United Nations Human Rights Council established the Independent International Investigation Committee consisting of three people in May 2021 to investigate the assumed violations of international law in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
In the past, Pelay held positions of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a judge of the International Criminal Court, and the President of the International Criminal Court of Rwanda.
For its part, Israel accused the committee of passing a “biased and predetermined political agenda … in a rude attempt to criminalize the Israeli defense forces.”
Destruction of a laboratory fertilization clinic
The report stated that the departments and hospitals of birth were systematically destroyed in the Gaza Strip, in addition to the “Al -Basma Center for Fertility and IVF”, the main clinic for laboratory fertility in Gaza.
He said that the Al -Basma Center was bombed in December 2023, according to reports – damage to 4,000 fetuses in a clinic that was frequent between two thousand and 3 thousand patients per month.
The committee concluded that the Israeli security forces deliberately attacked and destroyed the clinic, including all the reproductive materials stored for a future pregnancy in the Strip.
The committee did not find any reliable evidence indicating that the building was used for military purposes.
She concluded that the destruction was “a measure aimed at preventing births among Palestinians in Gaza, which is a genocide.”
The report also pointed to the increasing damage to pregnant and lactating women and new mothers in the Gaza Strip on an “unprecedented scope” with an irreplaceable effect on childbearing opportunities among the people of Gaza.
The committee concluded that this type of business “amounts to crimes against humanity,” and to deliberate efforts to destroy the Palestinians as a group.
extermination
This report came after the committee held public sessions in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday to listen to the testimonies and witnesses of sexual violence victims.
He concluded that Israel targeted civilian women and girls directly in “acts that represent a crime against humanity, which is killing and the crime of war of premeditated murder.”
Women and girls also died as a result of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth due to the circumstances imposed by the Israeli authorities and affecting access to reproductive health care, which are “acts that rise to genocide and it is a crime against humanity.”
The committee added that stripping people of their clothes publicly and sexual harassment, including the threat of rape and sexual assaults, are all part of the “unified action procedures” followed by the Israeli security forces against the Palestinians.