Nadine Osman
United Nations independent human rights experts have said that sexual and gender-based violence is being used as a “systematic tool” of Israeli occupation against Palestinians, warning that such practices may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity while also driving forced displacement.
In a statement issued on April 30, the experts — who are appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the UN itself — said the violence had become “embedded in Palestinians’ daily lives under occupation.”
“It is intersecting, structural and systematic, and operates as a tool of control, subjugation and dispossession,” the experts said.
Drawing on findings from several independent investigations, the experts said sexual violence occurs in a broad range of settings, including detention centres, military checkpoints and house raids, involving both Israeli forces and settlers.
They referenced earlier UN investigations, including a 2025 inquiry, which concluded that sexual and gender-based violence has been used “to terrorise them and perpetuate a system of oppression,” affecting Palestinian women, men, girls and boys alike.
“These violations… are intended not only to harm individuals, but to crush the Palestinian population as a whole,” the experts said, adding that such acts are both “a driver and a consequence of forced displacement” by creating a coercive environment that forces Palestinians to flee their homes.
“Sexualised violence is deployed as a method of domination — to instil fear, punish, and fracture communities by exploiting stigma and shame to isolate survivors and erode social cohesion,” they said.
“By making everyday life unsafe and unpredictable, it pressures Palestinians to leave their homes and land, directly enabling ethnic cleansing, forcible transfer and displacement.”
The experts detailed alleged abuses in the occupied West Bank, including sexual harassment, invasive body searches — “including anal and vaginal searches” — threats of sexual assault, forced nudity, genital violence, and threats directed at detainees and their family members.
They also highlighted what they described as the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities in Gaza, warning that the collapse of such services has caused deaths and lasting harm to women and girls. According to the experts, this includes “irreversible long-term effects on the mental health and reproductive and fertility prospects of Palestinians as a group.”
The statement further accused Israeli authorities and settlers of operating within a “persistent climate of impunity,” where investigations into abuses are rare and accountability remains largely absent.
“Political convenience, strategic, military and economic interests are placed above Palestinian lives,” the experts said. “Such indifference to justice not only fuels the next cycle of violence, but strikes the very basis of international law.”
“This dual failure reinforces a system in which violence against Palestinians is tolerated, if not enabled,” they added.
The experts warned that sexual and gender-based violence in the occupied Palestinian territories “may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity connected to the broader pattern of forcible transfer.”
Calling for urgent action, they urged Israel to immediately end such practices and ensure accountability, while also pressing the international community to fulfil its obligations under international law.
“Sexual violence cannot be treated as incidental harm,” the experts said. “It is a central component of the system of settler colonial oppression imposed on Palestinians.”
Israel has previously rejected similar allegations made by UN bodies and human rights.
