Thursday a United Nations Commission accused Israel of having targeted hospitals and other health facilities in Gaza who provide reproductive services, including an in vitro fertilization clinic in which thousands of embryos have been destroyed, in what has called an effort to prevent Palestinian births.
The United Nations Commission report on the investigation into the occupied Palestinian territory, entitled that and other actions that cause damage to women and girls “genocidal acts” and accused Israel of collectively punish the Palestinians for October 7, 2023 led by Hamas, who killed 1,200 people.
Israel’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva immediately rejected the report, affirming in a declaration that the commission was engaged in “a shameless attempt to incriminate” the Israeli military “to advance its predetermined and distorted political agenda”. Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accused the United Nations Council for Human Rights of attacking the country with “False accusations”.
The Commission, established by the Human Rights Council in 2021 and made up of three lawyers with experience in human rights, said that its report drew to the previous investigations that had led from the Hamas attack to Southern Israel and on about 25 interviews conducted in recent months with expert medical experts, as well as victims and witnesses of violence in Gaza. Part of the testimony was broadcast in two days of auditions in Geneva this week.
The report marked the first time that a United Nations Committee discovered that Israel committed genocidal acts pursuant to the Rome Statute, which created the international criminal court and under the international treatise that criminalize the genocide.
“The Israeli authorities have partially destroyed the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, including measures intended to prevent births, one of the categories of genocidal acts in the Statute of Rome and in the Genocide Convention,” said the Commission.
Israeli officials have long accused the Council of Rights of having identified Israel, claiming that the United Nations Committees and Committees condemn the country with much greater frequency than dictatorships such as North Korea. In February, Gideon Saar, Israeli Foreign Minister, said Israel will stop participating in the Council, accusing him of demonizing Israel.
The bombing and invasion of the Israeli army decimated the Gaza health system so that groups of aid and international bodies have defined “systematic”. The report states that this included damage to the clinics and other structures that provide maternity services that affect over half a million women and girls of reproductive age in Gaza.
Israel said that Hamas fighters incorporated into hospitals and other buildings. According to international law, in case of doubts that a hospital is used for military purposes, it should be assumed that according to the Red Cross, and civilians should not be targeted.
The report mentioned in particular the destruction of the IVF clinic of Al Basma, the largest fertility clinic of Gaza, which was destroyed in December 2023 by Artillery Fire, which is generally less accurate than missiles. The Commission has heard of expert witnesses that the destruction of the clinic caused the loss of about 4,000 embryos and other reproductive materials by Palestinian patients for whom he has often represented the last possibility of having children.