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Israel carried out "genocidal acts" against Palestinians by systematically destroying women's healthcare facilities during the conflict in Gaza, and used sexual violence as a war strategy, United Nations experts said in a new report on Thursday.
Israel's permanent mission to the U.N. in Geneva described allegations in the report as unfounded, biased, and lacking credibility.
The Foreign Ministry condemned the report calling it a modern-day “blood libel.” In its statement, the ministry said, “This is one of the worst cases of blood libel the world has ever seen (and the world has seen many). It blames the victims for the crimes committed against them. Hamas is the organization that committed horrific sexual crimes against Israelis. This is indeed a sick document that only an antisemitic organization like the UN could have produced.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the report, calling it "an anti-Israel circus." He stated that "the so-called UN Human Rights Council has long been exposed as an antisemitic, corrupt, and pro-terror body that has no legitimacy."
The Prime Minister’s Office statement added: "It is no coincidence that Israel withdrew from this body about a month ago. This is not a Human Rights Council — it is a council of blood libel." The statement further asserted: "Once again, the UN chooses to attack Israel with false accusations, including outrageous and baseless claims of sexual violence."
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"Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, including by imposing measures intended to prevent births, one of the categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention," said the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry.
Those actions, in addition to a surge in maternity deaths due to restricted access to medical supplies, amounted to the crime against humanity of extermination, the commission said.
The report accused Israel's security forces of using forced public stripping and sexual assault as part of their standard operating procedures to punish Palestinians following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel in October 2023.
Israel rejected the accusations. "The IDF (Israeli Defense Force) has concrete directives ... and policies which unequivocally prohibit such misconduct", the permanent mission to the UN in Geneva responded in a statement, adding that its review processes are in line with international standards.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told the AFP news agency that the report "shows that Israel has committed genocide in the Palestinian Authority territories since the October 7 attack." He said, "it confirms what happened on the ground: the violation of humanitarian and legal principles."
A previous report published by the Commission in June 2024 accused Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups of serious rights violations in its October 7, 2023 attack, including torture and degrading treatment.