There are documented testimonies about incidents of sexual violence against Palestinian women (Getty)
UN experts say they have seen “credible allegations” that Palestinian women and girls have been subjected to sexual assault, including rape, while in Israeli prisons, and are demanding a full investigation.
According to a report in The Guardian newspaper, the expert committee said that there was evidence of at least two cases of rape, in addition to other cases of sexual humiliation and threats of rape.
Reem Al Salem, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said the true extent of sexual violence may be much higher.
"We may not know for a long time the actual number of victims," she added.
She pointed out that secrecy in reporting sexual assaults is common due to fear of retaliation, noting that in the wave of arrests of Palestinian women and girls after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, there was an increasingly lenient attitude towards sexual assault in centers. Israeli detention.
Reem, who was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council as a special rapporteur in 2021, said, “I would like to say that violence and the dehumanization of Palestinian women, children, and civilians, in general, have become a normal thing throughout this war.”
Israeli rejection.
The newspaper indicated that the Israeli government rejected allegations of sexual violence against Palestinians, describing them as “despicable and baseless allegations.”
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the administration is aware of these allegations and has asked the Israeli authorities to investigate.
The UN experts said in their report, which was submitted last Monday, “We are particularly distressed by reports that detained Palestinian women and girls were also subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped of their clothes and searched by male Israeli army officers. It was reported that what At least two Palestinian detainees were raped, while others were threatened with rape and sexual violence.”
The independent experts, appointed by the Human Rights Council but not representing the United Nations, reported that humiliating images of female Palestinian detainees, said to have been taken by Israeli soldiers, had been uploaded to the Internet.
Experts said that women and girls were not spared the widespread killing of Palestinian civilians.
With the death toll in Gaza now approaching 30,000, experts have pointed to reports of women and girls being arbitrarily killed in Gaza, often along with family members.
“We are shocked by reports of the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they have taken refuge, or while fleeing,” they said in a joint statement.
Some of them were reportedly carrying pieces of white cloth when they were killed by the Israeli army or its forces.
Source: Guardian