'More than a human can bear': How Israel has systematically raped and sexually abused Palestinians since October 7
A new UN report has listed horrifying details of sexual abuse of the Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank at the hands of the Israeli military and settlers alike since October 7, 2023.
From striping Palestinians naked to spitting and urinating on them, inserting fingers, electrical rods, carrots, broomsticks, and other objects in their anuses to raping them to death, a new UN report on “Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence” has listed horrifying details of sexual abuse of the Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank at the hands of the Israeli military and settlers alike since October 7, 2023.
The 49-page report titled “More than a human can bear”: Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023 was published on March 13 by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. The commission was chaired by the renowned South African lawyer Navi Pillay. While many investigative journalism outlets, including this newsletter, have meticulously documented these crimes as they have transpired over the last year and a half, this report adds the imprimatur of an international body.
The report covers a wide range of abuses by the Israeli Security Forces (ISF) as well as Israeli settlers on Palestinian lands in a systematic attempt to decimate the Palestinian population. “There is no escape from the conclusion that Israel has employed sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians to terrorise them and perpetuate a system of oppression that undermines their right to self-determination,” says Pillay.
While the report details a plethora of reproductive and gender-based violence, including the systematic destruction of hospitals, especially their maternity wards, blocking access and availability of reproductive health care, starvation and reproductive harms, restrictions on the entry of menstrual pads, and attacks on fertility clinics, in this article I will focus mainly on Israel’s systematic use of sexual abuse and rape against the Palestinian hostages.
In the aftermath of the Palestinian resistance’s October 7 Al-Aqsa Flood operation, which completely decimated the southern division of the Israeli military, the Zionist state spun fantastical stories about mass rapes of Israeli women at the hands of the Palestinian fighters. Those lies were repeated ad nauseam by the Israeli leadership and further propagated by the allies of the Zionist state in Europe and North America. Western media parroted these same lies without proof or conducting even the most rudimentary investigations. Sheryl Sandberg, the former Facebook executive and a rabid Zionist, even made a “documentary” about the supposed mass rapes.
However, even after 524 days since October 7, 2023, Israel hasn’t been able to name one rape victim from October 7. Not one!
But its lies travelled significant distance and have been used to justify the wholesale slaughter and sexual abuse of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel will never be able to name any rape victims from October 7, simply because all the evidence suggests that no one was raped by any Palestinian fighter that day.
Israelis, on the other hand, have sexually abused and raped dozens of Palestinians since that fateful day, as detailed in this latest UN report, which was “accompanied by two days of public hearings held in Geneva on 11-12 March, during which the Commission heard from victims and witnesses of sexual and reproductive violence and medical personnel who assisted them, as well as representatives from civil society, academics, lawyers and medical experts.”
In its concluding remarks, the report says that “sexual and gender-based violence was intended not only to humiliate, punish and intimidate the individual Palestinians but the civilian population as a whole, with the objective to subordinate, destroy and expel the Palestinian community.”
Here are some of the most harrowing accounts of sexual abuse against Palestinians by the Israelis, as listed in the report (with the relevant section headings):
VI. B. Sexual harassment and public shaming of Palestinian women
The Commission notes that the videos and photos show a clear gender and racial bias by the perpetrators, who intentionally target Palestinian women and attempt to humiliate and degrade them publicly. Moreover, from the perspective of Palestinian culture, publication of these images is potentially extremely harmful, carrying serious implications for the women whose private possessions are publicly exposed.
The Commission also documented a deliberate attack in mid-November 2023 on a women’s rights centre working with survivors of gender-based violence in Gaza City. The attack against the centre appeared to have a clear gendered dimension, with soldiers leaving gendered and sexualised insults directed against the Palestinian women in graffiti in Hebrew on the walls of the centre, for example: “You sons of bitches, we came here to fuck you, you and your mothers, you bitches” and “The dirty pussies of your prostitutes, you ugly Arab you ugly, you sons of bitches, we will burn you alive you dogs”.
VI. C. Filming and photographing acts of sexual violence against men and boys during arrest
One victim described to the Commission his experience of being detained and photographed in this manner, during the evacuation of Beit Lahia in early December 2023. The victim stated that he was in his home when soldiers entered the area and ordered people to evacuate. During the course of the evacuation, men and boys were forced to undress in front of family members and ordered to kneel. The victim’s wife and children witnessed his undressing before they left the area. The man expressed the humiliation he felt being exposed like that in public. He and some 50 other men were ordered to walk barefoot in their underwear to the end of the street, where they were forced to kneel with about 250 other men and boys wearing only underwear.
The Commission documented three particularly egregious cases of sexual and gender-based violence during arrest and detention that were filmed and disseminated online by soldiers. One case involved a video depicting severe mistreatment and abuse of male detainees. The video was posted on X and Telegram by Israeli soldiers. The Commission geolocated it to Hebron, in the West Bank, noting it was filmed on 31 October 2023. In the footage, six men are seen blindfolded, undressed and lying on the ground. Two of the men are completely naked with their genitals exposed…One of the naked men appears to be unconscious or lifeless, while the other is yelling in pain before being pushed to the ground. A soldier is seen stepping on the face of one man who is wearing only trousers with his hands and feet tied. The man is then pulled by his legs, while yelling in pain. According to a media report, the ISF stated that the conduct of the soldiers was serious and not in line with the army’s orders and that the case was under investigation. The Commission was unable to find any information regarding the outcome of the investigation.
In a third video, filmed at night, three completely naked, barefoot and blindfolded Palestinian men are seen being forced onto a bus by ISF soldiers. An ISF soldier is heard swearing at the detainees in Arabic and Hebrew, and making spitting sounds, saying: “brother of a bitch”, “son of a whore”, “you pig”, “your sister’s cunt” and “you pimp”. The Commission found that the video was likely filmed in Ofer prison in the West Bank and showed the transfer of Palestinian detainees.
A woman working with an organisation providing psychosocial support to women in the Gaza Strip described to the Commission how this [forced public stripping and removal of veils in public] affected women’s psychological wellbeing: “With regards to ISF orders to remove veils, the women’s choice is between shame and abuse, possibly death. Being forced to remove your veil has a deep psychological impact on women, the trauma compounded by loss and grief from a war unlike anything they have seen before.” In some cases, male victims reported the stripping of female relatives as a means to humiliate the men.
A male witness told the Commission about sexual abuse and harassment of women that took place in Salah al-Din Street during evacuations, where members of the ISF instructed women to undress. The witness saw several of his female relatives being forced to undress, leaving them in their underwear with no veil to cover their hair. He also saw several women being subjected to sexual harassment by the soldiers while stripped, including a teenage girl aged around 17 years old. The soldiers mocked and harassed the men for not being able to intervene in the forced stripping of women. The witness also saw the mistreatment and arrest of a pregnant woman before she was taken away by soldiers.
In one case a woman reported that she was filmed during a ground offensive in Gaza in front of male members of the community who had been stripped naked as a means of humiliation. A soldier showed the woman the video that was taken of her and threatened to disseminate it online so that her community would shame and stigmatize her. The woman was reportedly beaten on her stomach and, as she had just had a Caesarean Section, she suffered serious complications.
In another case, a woman in Gaza was reportedly interrogated by several male soldiers in her home, beaten and groped. She was also threatened with rape, one soldier threatening to check if she was still a virgin.
In another case, a woman in Gaza was reportedly forced to strip in front of male soldiers outside while evacuating, and the lives of her children were threatened if she refused. The woman reported to have cried out of humiliation.
In one case, a 14-year-old girl was reportedly searched and subjected to sexual violence when passing by the Bab Al Zahera Police station on her way to a school. A soldier ordered her to stop and then threw the content of her bag on the ground and dragged her to a location close by that did not have cameras. Two soldiers reportedly touched her on her breasts, neck and waist. When she asked for a female soldier to do the search, she was slapped by one of the soldiers who also made sexual remarks and said “you are murderers”.
The Commission also received reports from women’s rights organisations that women were robbed by ISF soldiers while evacuating, their money and gold being seized. Witnesses interviewed by the Commission provided similar information.
VI. E. Sexual, reproductive and other gender-based violence in detention
The Commission documented cases of sexual and gender-based violence against male and female detainees in more than 10 military and Israel Prison Service facilities, in particular in Negev prison and Sde Teiman camp for male detainees and Damon and Hasharon prisons for female detainees.
Acts of sexual violence documented by the Commission appear to have been motivated by extreme hatred towards the Palestinian people and a desire to dehumanize and punish them.
The Commission found that forced nudity, with the aim of degrading and humiliating victims in front of both soldiers and other detainees, was frequently used against male detainees, including through repeated strip searches, interrogations of detainees while they were naked, forcing detainees to perform certain movements while naked or stripped and, in some cases, also filming them, subjecting detainees to sexual slurs as they were transported naked, forcing naked detainees into a crowded cell together, and forcing stripped and blindfolded detainees to crouch on the ground with their hands tied behind their back.
The Commission documented cases of rape and sexual assault of male detainees, including the use of an electrical probe to cause burns to the anus, and the insertion of objects, such as fingers, sticks, broomsticks and vegetables, into the anus and rectum. One victim who had been detained in Sde Teiman told the Commission about severe mistreatment, including being suspended from the ceiling so that only the tips of his toes touched a chair and beaten with tools for hours. During the abuse, a metal tool was inserted in his penis repeatedly until his penis started bleeding, and he fainted. The victim told the Commission: “They took me into an interrogation room and suspended me by my arms behind my back. My toes barely touched the floor. A male guard inserted a metal stick in my penis on several occasions, about twenty times in total. I started bleeding. The pain was excruciating but the humiliation was worse.”
In at least two cases documented by the Commission, victims needed medical treatment and/or surgery due to the injuries caused by rape. In one case, a detained Palestinian man was raped after he was transferred from Ofer prison to Sde Teiman detention facility. According to an indictment submitted to an Israeli military court, the man was physically abused by five soldiers, reservists in Unit 100, during a search at Sde Teiman prison. The men, including the commander of the team, kicked the victim and hit him with a baton and tasered him in the head. A baton was also inserted in his mouth and a dog was used to intimidate the victim during the assault. The assault resulted in the fracture of several of the victim’s ribs and a punctured lung. The victim was also stabbed in the rectum with a sharp object. The victim’s rectum was raptured due to the assault, and he required surgery to the rectum. Following the assault, the victim was required to use a stoma bag due to the gravity of the injuries. A video filming the assailants were taken by a soldier.
Footage of a Palestinian detainee being raped in the Sde Teiman prison. He ultimately died of grievous injuries sustained during the ordeal.
The Commission received reports that Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, the head of the orthopaedic department at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, was subjected to sexual violence in an Israeli prison prior to his death in Israeli custody. Al-Bursh was arrested in December 2023 from al-Awda hospital during the ISF’s siege on the hospital. Al-Bursh died at Ofer prison in April after four months in an Israeli prison allegedly due to the mistreatment he endured during his captivity. A released detainee told the Commission that he saw al-Bursh in Sde Teiman in December 2023 where he was bruised and complained of chest pain. The Commission also received reports about a witness in Ofer prison seeing al-Bursh just prior to his death. According to the witness, al-Bursh had been assaulted and stripped naked on his lower body. Al-Bursh’s body remains withheld by the Israeli authorities. To the Commission’s knowledge there has not been an independent forensic autopsy on the body.
One detainee was subjected to an attempted rape with a carrot in the anus in front of the other detainees.
Another detainee held in Sde Teiman reported that female soldiers had forced him and others to make sounds like a sheep, curse the Hamas leadership and the prophet Muhammad, and say “I am a whore”. Detainees were beaten if they did not comply.
In another case, a soldier took off his trousers and pressed his crotch to a detainee’s face, saying: “You are my bitch. Suck my dick.”
One female detainee interviewed by the Commission said that a soldier threatened to gang rape her, kill her and burn her children. The soldier asked her: “How do you want us to rape you? one by one or all together?” The victim was also denied access to her lawyer once she had informed him of the rape threat.
In one case reported to the Commission, a woman was threatened with sexual assault in front of her husband while detained in Hasharon prison. One soldier reportedly unzipped his pants and threatened to make the woman sit on his lap while another soldier commented on her breasts. The woman, who had given birth two months prior to her detention, was reportedly spat in her face by the soldiers and beaten repeatedly until she fainted.
Female detainees reported being subjected to repeated, prolonged and invasive strip searches, both before and after interrogations. One woman was strip searched in her cell every three hours during her four-day detention, the guards forcing her to remove all her clothes even though she was menstruating. Women were forced to remove all clothes, including the veil, in front of male and female soldiers. They were beaten and harassed while called “ugly” and subjected to sexual insults, such as “bitch” and “whore”, directed at them.
One victim described to the Commission the humiliation she and her fellow detainees were subjected to: “They forced us to strip and laughed at us during the search because some of us had clothes stained with menstruation blood and some smelled because we had not been allowed to take showers. They also laughed at one detainee who was overweight. We felt so insulted and humiliated.” Amnesty International also reported on a violent strip search involving a female detainee in Damon prison where guards reportedly used a huge knife to rip off her clothes.
The Commission received reports from the Palestinian Authority and civil society organisations about the rape of several female detainees but was not able to verify the information. In three of the cases the rape reportedly involved the insertion of foreign devices in the vagina or rectum of the detainees.
VII. Sexual and gender-based violence by settlers and other civilians
One of the human rights defenders was beaten on his head with a rifle, by a man wearing a military uniform, resulting in severe bleeding. When the victim tried to lift his head and wipe the blood from his face, the perpetrator stepped on his head and smeared dirt on his face. The uniformed man tore the victim’s clothes with a knife, leaving him in his underwear. He then blindfolded him with a piece of torn clothes. He put his foot on the victim’s head and pushed his face to the ground several times, saying, “eat, eat”, as the ground had remnants of straw and sheep food. The victim told the uniformed man that he had undergone heart surgery which prompted the uniformed man to kick the victim in the chest, saying “die, die”. The uniformed man then proceeded to jump on the victim’s back. When the victim asked for water, the uniformed man said he will give him water and urinated on him. He then placed a stick in the area of the victim’s anus, over his underwear, and attempted twice to insert the stick into his rectum but the victim moved away to avoid it. According to the victim, men in military uniforms beat the other human rights defender and extinguished their cigarettes in four different places on his body.
The Commission also received information about settlers subjecting two 15- year-old boys to physical assault and sexual violence in August 2024 in Bethlehem. The boys were herding cattle when they were attacked by a group of settlers carrying knives. The two boys were beaten, blindfolded and stripped by the settlers. One settler also urinated on one of the boys. The boys were beaten severely during the attack, and one sustained a fracture to his leg.
These egregious war crimes have been facilitated by the Israeli state which has given its soldiers complete impunity to do as they please. When Herzog declared that “there are no innocent civilians” in Gaza, Netanyahu labelled them all as “Amalek”, and Gallant went on to deprive the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza of food, water, and electricity because they are “human animals”, the message to their foot soldiers was clear: Gaza is free for all.
On top of it, the Western world has provided all the bombs and diplomatic protection Israel needs to carry out its genocide.
The UN report makes note of the impunity and the total preclusion from accountability granted to the Israelis as they commit a plethora of war crimes in Gaza.
IX. Impunity and accountability
The Commission notes that, there have been no meaningful efforts by Israel to hold the perpetrators accountable. The Commission has not seen any evidence that the Israeli authorities have taken any effective measures to prevent or stop acts of sexual violence or to identify and punish perpetrators, despite the abundance of witness and digital evidence of Israeli soldiers committing crimes in Gaza.
The Commission finds that there is a clear culture of impunity within the ISF and soldiers believe that they will never be held accountable for the crimes they have committed. This results in an implicit or tacit encouragement by the top civilian and military leadership to the soldiers who commit these crimes.
The statements and actions by political and civic leaders and the lack of effectiveness of the military judicial system send a clear message to ISF members that they can continue committing such acts without fear of accountability.
True to form, soon after the report’s publication Netanyahu smeared the Human Rights Council as an “anti-Semitic, rotten, terrorist-supporting, and irrelevant body”, before adding, “This is not the Human Rights Council - this is the Blood Rights Council” for good measure.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry called it “one of the worst cases of blood libel the world has ever seen.”
While Israel’s criminality has grown manifold and become transparent since October 7, it has a documented history of sexually abusing Palestinians in its prisons as well as during the raids its military conducts on the homes of the natives in the West Bank.
Furthermore, there is ample historic evidence to suggest that Israel’s military personnel take glee in killing pregnant Palestinian women and children. In the aftermath of Israel’s assault on Gaza in 2009, its soldiers were seen in T-shirts with a pregnant woman in crosshairs and the slogan “1 Shot 2 Kills”. Another T-shirt carried the slogan “The smaller they are, the harder it is”, showing a child in a rifle sight.
This dehumanising rhetoric has gone through the roof since October 7.
At the end, the report makes several recommendations to “the Government of the State of Israel”, to “all Member States”, to “the Secretary-General of the United Nations” and to “the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights” to rein in the genocidal Israelis and curb their impunity. By the evidence of the last 17 months, it is unlikely that any of its recommendations will followed. Among the member states, only Yemen has been complying with the genocide convention and attempting to stop the Israeli assault on the Palestinians militarily.
Now more sure than ever in its belief that it sits above international law and all moral considerations, there’s no sign that Israel will curb its criminal behaviour.
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Israel and rape
The resistance to the ongoing Israeli genocidal campaign in Gaza by the Palestinian groups in the enclave and by Hezbollah in northern occupied Palestine has forced hundreds of thousands of Israelis to flee from the homes they stole from the Palestinians in the so-called Gaza envelope (the areas bordering Gaza) and northern historic Palestine. Those who…
These are people indoctrinated with hate and thus are manufactured psychopaths. Even if I weren't Jewish I'd be absolutely horrified. These psychopaths are not Jews at all. They use their supposed Judaism as a cover for their barbarity. Israel was a Western-sponsored, white supremacist crime from the beginning, and it's only gotten worse. I am in favor of the complete abolition of Israel. If anyone should be placed in reeducation camps it's Israeli Zionists, as it's unclear if just dissolving Israel as a state would stop them from carrying out continued murders, torture, rape, etc. I consider them all deeply dangerous.
Ghastly, brutal, unconscionable. Truly 'more than a human can bear". What a sick society.