Israel’s consistent obstructions of all United Nations investigations into allegations of sexual violence since 7 October 2023 is profoundly concerning. These obstructions, coupled with substantial evidence indicating systematic and widespread acts of rape and other forms of sexual violence by Israeli forces against Palestinians, including prisoners and detainees, constitute grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The grounds for the inclusion of Israel on the UN’s blacklist of entities suspected of perpetrating sexual violence in conflicts are compelling.
For the past 15 months, Israel has consistently refused to cooperate with all United Nations bodies with an investigative mandate to examine allegations of rape and other forms of sexual violence arising from the attacks of 7 October.
It was disclosed last Wednesday that Israel has once again denied authorisation for an investigation by the UN Special Representative on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, Pramila Patten. This refusal reportedly stems from concerns that a comprehensive investigation would expose Israel’s systematic use of mass rape against Palestinians, including women and children, as Patten had insisted that access to Israeli detention centres to investigate allegations against Israeli soldiers was a crucial requirement for the process.
Israel’s refusal is particularly striking given that Israeli civil society, until recently, held a generally favourable view of Patten, and even called on her to revisit Israel.
Patten’s earlier report, published on 11 March 2024, marks the only instance in which the Israeli government has provided information to a UN inquiry into allegations of sexual violence. However, as clearly stated in the report, the mission’s mandate at that time was not investigative. The report recommended that the Israeli government cooperate with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt), including East Jerusalem and Israel, as well as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), to facilitate comprehensive investigations into all alleged violations, especially after Israel denied these entities access and cooperation, as highlighted in the report.
The Israeli obstruction of truth in this context was first evidenced in January 2024, when the Israeli government expressly prohibited Israeli doctors and relevant authorities from cooperating with the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, labeling the commission as “anti-Israeli and antisemitic”. Since then, the Israeli government has persistently maintained this obstructive stance, undermining the Commission’s efforts to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation, which constitutes a failure by Israel to comply with its obligation under international law to cooperate with UN bodies. Israeli is also denying victims on both sides their right to justice and accountability for the alleged violations.
“Israel’s repeated refusal to cooperate with all UN investigations into sexual violence highlights the Israeli government’s exploitation of the allegations of this grave crime as a propaganda tool to manufacture consent for its full-fledged, live-streamed genocide,” said Ramy Abdu, Chairman of Euro-Med Monitor. “Israel merely uses these allegations to shame and smear critics and deflect blame from its formidable crimes against humanity.”
Over the past 15 months, the Euro-Med Monitor team has documented numerous instances of Israeli-perpetrated sexual violence, including rape and other forms of sexualised torture, against Palestinian civilians, including individuals abducted to Israel’s Sde Teiman torture camp.
In at least one instance, a Palestinian detainee was subjected to rape by Israeli police dogs as part of their assault. In Sde Teiman, “the soldiers took off the blindfolds covering our eyes for the first time,” lawyer Fadi Saif al-Din Bakr, released on 22 February 2024 after 45 days of detention, told the Euro-Med Monitor team. “The soldiers later pulled a young man sitting to my right, forced him to sleep on the ground, and tied his hands and feet. Suddenly, the occupation soldiers let loose trained police dogs on the young man, who was subjected to rape by the dogs. Throughout the entire ordeal I endured, this was among the most awful things that I witnessed.”
Added al-Din Bakr: “Everything was a lot [to go through], and this was just one more [incident] added to the heap of torments. I was hoping to die so that this would not happen to me, but one of the soldiers told me to get ready. [Yet] something miraculous happened in the prison; the torture session quickly ended, and we were brought back to the barn.”
In some cases, Palestinians have been raped to death by Israeli army personnel. These documented incidents provide strong evidence of the systematic and widespread nature of such atrocities, revealing that Israel has weaponised sexual violence as a deliberate tactic to destroy the Palestinian population’s morale.
Among the at least 36 detainee deaths under investigation at Israel’s notorious Sde Teiman detention facility, one Palestinian man is reported to have died following a horrific act of rape with an electric baton. This brutal act, along with many others, is unlikely to be investigated or prosecuted within Israel, and will be prevented from international scrutiny as Israel continues to block investigations into such crimes.
Numerous reports from international, UN, and Israeli human rights organisations, including the UN Human Rights Office, Amnesty International, and B’Tselem, have documented Israel’s systematic and widespread use of torture and sexual violence against Palestinians.
In addition, the June 2024 report by the UN CoI on the oPt, including East Jerusalem and Israel reached similar conclusions. It documented a “significant increase in the range, frequency, and severity of sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated by Israeli Security Forces (ISF) against Palestinians” since 7 October 2023. The report further stated that this increase was “linked to an intent to punish and humiliate Palestinians”.
Recently, the Euro-Med Monitor team documented horrific testimonies at Kamal Adwan Hospital regarding the sexual assault of civilians, including female medical staff and children. The victims were forced to remove their clothes and headscarves and subjected to humiliating body searches by male Israeli army personnel. One woman, forcibly evacuated from the hospital, recounted to the Euro-Med Monitor team: “A soldier forced a nurse to remove her trousers and then placed his hand on her genitals. When she tried to resist, he struck her hard across the face, causing her nose to bleed.”
The Israeli crimes involving the killing of Palestinians and the infliction of severe physical and psychological harm through torture, mistreatment, and sexual violence, including rape, are being carried out with extreme brutality and in a systematic nature that is clearly indicative of a specific intent to destroy the Palestinian people. These acts constitute components of the crime of genocide, as outlined in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Euro-Med Monitor calls on the United Nations to include Israel on its blacklist of entities involved in sexual violence in conflicts. This call comes in light of substantial evidence documenting Israel’s systematic use of sexual violence, including rape and other forms of sexual abuse, as part of its broader campaign of annihilation against the Palestinian people.
Euro-Med Monitor emphasises the urgent need for international accountability and a comprehensive investigation into these atrocities to ensure justice for the victims and prevent further impunity. The Monitor affirmed that, over the course of several decades, Israel has consistently demonstrated both a lack of willingness and a lack of capacity to hold accountable or prosecute those implicated in crimes committed against Palestinians, with such individuals afforded judicial, political, military, and even popular protection.
The international community must take urgent and decisive action to address and halt Israel’s grave crimes against Palestinian prisoners and detainees. This includes the immediate and unconditional release of individuals being arbitrarily detained, the cessation of enforced disappearances that facilitate further atrocities, and the granting of access for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other competent local and international organisations to all Israeli detention facilities. Additionally, victims must be granted the right to legal representation.
Euro-Med Monitor further demands that these crimes be investigated promptly, impartially, thoroughly, and independently, in order for all perpetrators to be held accountable, and that all victims and their families be fully granted their right to truth, to effective remedies, and to comprehensive reparations, ensuring justice and dignity for those affected by these heinous crimes.
It is imperative that the international community support the International Criminal Court (ICC) in conducting a comprehensive investigation into these crimes, as well as ensuring their incorporation into the charges brought against Israeli officials before the Court, and ensure the accountability and prosecution of all those responsible for it.
Euromed Human Rights Monitor
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