Israel’s Gendered Genocide

The Systematic Use of Sexual and Reproductive Violence in Gaza

Fifteen months into Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, the extent of its brutality is undeniable. The latest report from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (A/HRC/58/CRP.6) lays bare a devastating reality: sexual, reproductive, and gender-based violence are not incidental—they are central to Israel’s strategy of extermination. Through targeted attacks on women, the destruction of reproductive healthcare, and the calculated degradation of Palestinian bodies, Israel is carrying out a genocide in every sense of the word.

Sexual Violence as a Colonial Weapon: The Gendered Terror of Genocide

Sexual violence has long been a tool of colonial repression, a weapon used not only to destroy individuals but to fracture entire societies. In Israel’s genocidal campaign against Gaza, this form of brutality has escalated to extreme levels. The Palestinian Resistance’s October 7 Operation provided the Israeli regime with a pretext to unleash its most unrestrained violence yet, and gendered terror has become one of its most insidious weapons. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry’s findings confirm what Palestinian survivors and human rights organizations have been documenting for years: sexual violence is an integral part of Israel’s systematic dehumanization and destruction of the Palestinian people.

The Targeting of Palestinian Men: Gendered Humiliation as a Colonial Strategy

Throughout Israel’s mass abductions and detentions of Palestinian men and boys, detainees have been subjected to acts of sexual degradation meant to break their spirits and desecrate their dignity. According to testimonies, abducted men have been stripped naked, forced into dehumanizing positions, and sexually humiliated in front of other prisoners and cameras. The forced removal of clothing, filmed sexual assaults, and psychological torture are not incidental—they are methods of control rooted in the colonial logic of subjugation.

This gendered violence is deeply tied to broader patterns of Israeli oppression. Historically, colonial regimes have used sexual violence against men as a means of emasculation, robbing them of agency and power. In Gaza, these tactics are deployed systematically, with the Israeli occupation forces broadcasting videos of detained men stripped and abused, their suffering turned into a spectacle of terror meant to instill fear across Palestinian communities. This mirrors how other genocidal regimes, from the Serbian forces in Bosnia to the French in Algeria, weaponized sexual violence against men to shatter resistance and enforce submission.

The intent is clear: to destroy the psychological resilience of Palestinian detainees and, by extension, weaken the fabric of Palestinian resistance. But as history has shown, no amount of gendered violence can erase a people’s will to fight for their survival.

Palestinian Women and Girls: Systematic Sexual Terror and Erasure

While Palestinian men are targeted for humiliation, Palestinian women and girls face direct physical and sexual violence as part of Israel’s genocidal strategy. Reports detail how women attempting to flee attacks—often carrying white flags to signal their non-combatant status—have been deliberately gunned down by Israeli forces. Pregnant women have been sniped outside hospitals, their bodies left to bleed out as their unborn children die inside them. The message is chillingly clear: Palestinian women are not just collateral damage in this genocide—they are specific targets.

Public sexual harassment and humiliation of Palestinian women by Israeli forces and settlers has intensified, particularly in occupied areas where women have been stripped, groped, and assaulted at checkpoints. Israeli settlers, emboldened by a regime that grants them impunity, have been seen taunting Palestinian women, threatening them with rape, and committing acts of sexual violence in the open. These are not isolated cases; they are part of a larger pattern in which colonial violence is enacted through the control and violation of Palestinian bodies.

The destruction of hospitals and maternity wards, the targeted killing of pregnant women, and the documented increase in rape threats and physical assaults all serve a singular purpose: to disrupt Palestinian lineage, to make childbirth dangerous, and to reinforce the settler-colonial belief that Palestinian bodies are disposable.

Sexual Violence as a Hallmark of Genocide

Sexual violence is never just about individual acts of brutality—it is a strategic mechanism of genocide. It seeks to erase cultures, annihilate futures, and instill terror so deep that it fractures communities from within. Israel’s use of sexual violence against Palestinians follows the blueprint of past genocidal regimes, from the forced sterilization of Indigenous women in the Americas to the mass rapes committed by the Janjaweed militias in Darfur. The intent is always the same: to annihilate a people by violating the most intimate aspects of their humanity.

This is not a war. It is calculated, gendered genocide. The world’s continued silence is complicity. Every institution, every government, every organization that refuses to name and prosecute these crimes is an accomplice in the systematic extermination of Palestinians.

But history will remember. And justice, however delayed, will come.

Reproductive Violence: The Erasure of Future Generations

Beyond direct physical violence, Israel is deploying reproductive violence to erase the Palestinian people. The Commission documents how Israel has methodically obliterated Gaza’s reproductive healthcare infrastructure:

• Systematic attacks on maternity wards and reproductive health clinics—Al-Awda Hospital, Gaza’s primary reproductive health provider, was repeatedly targeted and besieged, with staff abducted and patients left to die.

• The destruction of Al-Basma IVF Clinic, Gaza’s largest fertility center, which housed 4,000 embryos, sperm samples, and eggs. This was not a random airstrike; it was an attack on Palestinian generational survival.

• Forced maternal suffering—Women giving birth in tents, on rubble, or in overcrowded, unsanitary hospitals, often without pain relief, sterilization tools, or medical support.

One doctor interviewed in the report described a pregnant woman who bled to death outside Al-Awda Hospital after being shot by an Israeli sniper. Her body was left to rot for 20 days. This is not just violence—it is intentional reproductive genocide.

Starvation as a Gendered Weapon of Genocide

Israel’s deliberate starvation of Gaza is another front in its genocide. Pregnant and lactating women have faced catastrophic levels of malnutrition, forced to survive on two food items a day, if that. The consequences have been devastating:

• A 300% increase in miscarriages since October 7.

• Rising maternal mortality rates due to untreated pregnancy complications.

• Infant deaths caused by the lack of medical resources, formula, and maternal nutrition.

These conditions are not just a consequence of genocide; they are the genocide. Israel’s policies deliberately engineer famine, knowing that starvation weakens the body, stunts fetal development, and renders childbirth even more dangerous.

The Role of the Occupation Regime and Global Complicity

Israel is fully aware that it is committing genocide. The report documents explicit statements by Israeli officials, including those advocating the total annihilation of Gaza’s civilian population. One Israeli analyst publicly declared, “The woman is an enemy, the baby is an enemy, and the pregnant woman is an enemy.” This is the rhetoric of genocide—unfiltered, unapologetic, and enforced through state violence.

Yet, despite overwhelming evidence, the international response remains predictably feeble. Israel has refused to cooperate with human rights investigations, just as it has systematically ignored UN resolutions and the International Court of Justice’s calls for a ceasefire. Meanwhile, the United States and European powers continue to fund and arm the Israeli regime, ensuring that the genocide continues unchecked.

Gendered Genocide: Naming the Crime, Demanding Justice

Israel’s use of sexual and reproductive violence is not just a war crime—it is a calculated strategy of genocide aimed at erasing the Palestinian people. The destruction of maternity wards, the starvation of pregnant women, the targeted killing of mothers and children—these acts mirror historical patterns of settler-colonial erasure, from the sterilization of Indigenous women in the Americas to the mass rape campaigns of the Bosnian genocide.

This is a genocide fought through the destruction of bodies, families, and futures. And it will not end without full-scale accountability.

The world has two choices: continue to enable this genocide or fight to dismantle the system that allows it. Anything less is complicity.

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Major Findings from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (A/HRC/58/CRP.6)

1. Systematic Use of Sexual Violence – Palestinian detainees, particularly men and boys, subjected to filmed sexual humiliation, forced stripping, and assault as a deliberate colonial tactic to instill terror and destroy social cohesion.

2. Targeting of Palestinian Women and Girls – Increased reports of Israeli forces and settlers engaging in public sexual harassment, rape threats, and gendered humiliation, particularly at checkpoints and during military raids.

3. Pregnant Women as Deliberate Targets – Sniping of pregnant women outside hospitals, forced miscarriages due to starvation and lack of medical care, and the destruction of maternity wards ensuring unsafe births.

4. Obliteration of Reproductive Healthcare – Over 540,000 women and girls in Gaza deprived of essential reproductive healthcare; maternity wards and IVF clinics bombed, including the destruction of 4,000 embryos at Al-Basma Fertility Clinic.

5. Gendered Starvation Policies – Malnutrition and famine tactics disproportionately affecting pregnant and lactating women, leading to a 300% increase in miscarriages and rising maternal and infant mortality rates.

6. Sexual and Reproductive Violence as Genocidal Strategy – Patterns of gendered violence consistent with historical genocides, intended to erase Palestinian existence through bodily destruction, forced suffering, and intergenerational trauma.

7. Total Impunity for Israeli Forces and Settlers – No legal accountability for the escalating sexual and gender-based violence; explicit incitement by Israeli officials reinforcing the genocidal intent behind these crimes.

These findings reinforce what Palestinians have long stated: this is not just mass killing. It is a systematic campaign of extermination targeting every aspect of Palestinian existence, down to their very ability to reproduce and survive.