The Israeli government says the U.N. group used secondhand, uncorroborated evidence to libel the Jewish state.
A United Nations panel has accused Israel of “genocidal acts,” including “the systematic use of sexual, reproductive, and other gender-based violence” in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The commission, in a report released on March 13, said the widespread destruction in Gaza, the use of heavy explosives in civilian areas, and Israeli attacks on hospitals and clinics led to “disproportionate violence against women and children.”
It accused Israeli authorities of destroying “in part the reproductive capacity of Palestinians as a group.” It alleged a surge in maternity deaths due to restricted medical supplies. It described the destruction of a fertility clinic in a bombing.
The report also contained allegations of sexual abuse by former prisoners, such as sexual touching, being stripped of clothing, or being threatened with rape.
Israel’s U.N. representatives rejected the accusations and accused the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestine Territory of relying on “second-hand, single, uncorroborated sources.” It refused to cooperate with the commission, which was created by the U.N. Human Rights Council, accusing the groups of systematic bias against Israel.
Israel withdrew from the council on Feb. 5, following President Donald Trump’s move announced the previous day to pull the United States out of the council.
The commission’s findings can be used by the International Criminal Court and other groups prosecuting war crimes.
Israel said it took extraordinary measures to avoid harming civilians during the war. It attributed civilians’ deaths and destruction to Hamas’s operations in civilian areas, saying the terrorist group used civilians as human shields.
Israel’s permanent mission to the U.N. in Geneva said in a statement on Thursday that the allegations are “a shameless attempt to incriminate” the Israel Defense Forces and “manufacture the illusion of ’systematic’ use” of sexual and gender-based violence.
The Commission of Inquiry “deliberately adopts a lower level of corroboration in its report, which allowed it to include information from second-hand single uncorroborated sources,” the mission said.
“This means that Israeli forces are subject to an entirely different standard than any other actor—any unsubstantiated information that supports the [commission’s] predetermined narrative is deemed credible, even if not verified.”
The mission said the U.N. panel’s accusations demonstrate a double standard.
