EVACUATION. Citizens of Gaza are on their way to leave the city to the southern safer parts by whatever vehicles they can find after the United Nations reported that the Israeli army wanted 1.1 million civilians to leave their homes and move to the south of the region in this October 2023 file photo. On International Women’s Day, March 8, UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem said there are “many layers of violence that is being perpetuated against" Palestinian women by Israel. (Anadolu)
ISTANBUL – For Palestinian women, there are “many layers of violence that is being perpetuated against them” by Israel, according to Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls.
In an interview with Anadolu for International Women’s Day, marked annually on March 8, Alsalem stressed that there should be “no impunity” for any crimes of gender-based violence.
“Any crimes of gender-based violence that may have been committed in the context of Palestine or Israel, like in the rest of the world, should be, first of all, investigated independently and impartially,” she said.
“There should be no impunity for these crimes.”
At least 9,000 Palestinian women have been killed in the Gaza Strip, where the death toll from Israel’s ongoing offensive is now almost 31,000, while more than 72,000 more Palestinians have been injured.
The Israeli war has pushed 85 percent of Gaza’s population into internal displacement, including about 1 million women, roughly 52,000 of whom are pregnant.
Israel, which stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, has also imposed a crippling blockade on the seaside enclave, leaving its population on the verge of starvation.
Acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine have meant that many have given birth in tents and bathrooms, while others have had C-sections without anesthesia.
According to UN figures, an estimated 37 mothers are killed by Israeli forces every single day in Gaza.
Alsalem pointed out that Palestinian women are also facing “a specific form of reproductive violence” from the Israeli army.
“In Palestine, we are seeing also a specific form of reproductive violence, where actually it’s trying to prevent births within a group or killing mothers in large numbers, killing infants, or allowing them to starve, or be collectively killed either through bombardment or snipers,” she said.
“I think that’s also a specific form of violence against women, specifically mothers. We know every hour 2 mothers die (in Gaza).”
Sexual violence and degrading treatment
A group of UN experts have recently spoken of credible allegations of severe human rights violations targeting Palestinian women and girls in Gaza and the occupied West Bank since Israel launched its war on Gaza last October
The UN rights office has said it received information of rapes and threats of rape and sexual violence, while Palestinian women released from Israeli detention have repeatedly spoken about sexual assaults, strip searches, and physical abuse by Israeli soldiers.
Many Palestinian women “have reportedly been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, denied menstruation pads, food and medicine, and severely beaten. On at least one occasion, Palestinian women detained in Gaza were allegedly kept in a cage in the rain and cold, without food,” UN experts said in a February statement.
Another disturbing element has been the photos of Israeli soldiers posing with and showcasing underwear belonging to Palestinian women on social media after raiding their homes in the Gaza Strip.
“I think this approach to the personal and intimate property of Palestinian women is one of many layers of violence that is being perpetuated against them,” said Alsalem.
“It also shows the contempt that the Israeli soldiers have towards Palestinians in general, but also Palestinian women.”
She said Israeli soldiers are “treating it like a sort of war trophy… mocking and trying to basically humiliate Palestinian women through exposing and parading their most intimate objects.”
These actions are being done “often standing over the ruins of houses where Palestinians have been killed, where they might be still under the rubble,” she added.
Alsalem said these actions are “very concerning… and certainly must be investigated, must be stopped,” stressing that the perpetrators “must be held accountable.”
“But I would say that this is one of the many violations of the Israeli Defense Forces … and perhaps not even the most serious one,” she said. “We’re talking starvation. We’re talking about an unfolding genocide. We’re talking about ethnic cleansing. We’re talking about the denial of humanitarian aid, of the most basic right to life, safety, and dignity.” (Anadolu)
