UN report accuses Israel of genocidal acts and sexual violence in Gaza

'Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the report's findings are biased and antisemitic.

"Instead of focusing on the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Hamas terrorist organization ... the United Nations once again chooses to attack the state of Israel with false accusations," he said in a statement Thursday.'

There is not one thing in the report that mentions Jews. There is not one thing that mentions Jewish people, Jewish history, or even Israel's own history beyond verifiable current events.

Yet in the same breath Netanyahu calls the report "antisemetic" and an "attack [on] the state of Israel".

CRITICISM OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL IS NOT ANTISEMITISM!

How many times do we have to say it? Netanyahu is a bold-faced liar.

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Excerpts:

'Israeli authorities have "destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group," the report said.

The destruction of reproductive capacity amounts to two categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention: deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians; and imposing measures intended to prevent births.

Those actions, in addition to a surge in maternity deaths due to restricted access to medical supplies, amounted to the crime against humanity of extermination, the commission said.'

"Israel's use of starvation as a method of war, the denial of humanitarian assistance and the concerted policy to destroy Gaza's healthcare system, compounded by the lack of water and access to sanitation facilities, have caused severe reproductive harms to women and girls, impacting all aspects of reproduction, including pregnancy, childbirth, post-partum recovery and lactation," it said.

The report also accused Israel's security forces of using forced public stripping and sexual assault as part of their standard operating procedures to punish Palestinians following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel in October 2023.

The resulting war in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.

During a series of hearings held by the commission this week in Geneva, a Gaza nurse, identified only as Said for his protection, said that Israeli forces had kidnapped him and made him publicly strip down to his underwear. During his captivity, he was beaten in the genitals, he said.

"This is physical abuse, but it's also psychological abuse. It's designed to humiliate," said Chris Sidoti, one of three members of a commission of inquiry into abuses committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

The commission also accused Israeli security forces of rape and sexual violence against Palestinian detainees.'

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Gaza desalination plant could run out of clean water after Israel cuts off power supply.
Official warns Israel's move will lead to possible discharges of raw sewage into the sea.

'Roughly 400,000 people in the affected areas will no longer be able to rely on water from the plant, which is now using benzene to operate — and that could run out in several days, Shatat said. Some 50 per cent of the water the plant supplied was potable water that was clean for drinking, he said.

Before power was cut off on Sunday, the plant was providing about 18,000 cubic metres of water each day. Now, it is able to provide only 3,000 cubic metres of water daily as it continues to run on benzene.

Gazans have relied largely on backup generators and solar power for electricity after Israel suspended its power supply to Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, leaving much of the war-torn enclave in the dark.

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said the desalination plant — which is the only one with a power line to Israel —was being supplied with some electricity before it was cut off on Sunday.

"This decision shows that the occupation [Israel] pays no attention to any humanitarian or international laws," Qassem told CBC News on Monday.

A number of humanitarian groups — including the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and the International Committee of the Red Cross — have said that under international humanitarian law, Israel is required to make sure the basic needs of Gazans are met, including food and water.'

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"Our research reveals that, for months, Israel has persisted in committing genocidal acts, fully aware of the irreparable harm it was inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza," Amnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard said in a news release on Wednesday.

"It continued to do so in defiance of countless warnings about the catastrophic humanitarian situation and of legally binding decisions from the International Court of Justice ordering Israel to take immediate measures to enable the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza."

The 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention created international laws criminalizing genocide, defining it as "the deliberate attempt to erase a national, ethnic, religious or racial group."

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