Palestinian Groups Demand Action as UN Acknowledges Sexual Assault Claims in Israeli Jails

"This report adds to previously documented abuses of our prisoners, which have led to the death of eight prisoners in the occupation jails and the disappearance of many prisoners of whom there is no information since their arrest," the prisoner support organizations stated.

"We call on the international institutions to take action. Reports are not enough; we demand concrete action to protect our detainees in the occupation jails," they emphasized.

"We have difficulty documenting testimonies from detainees from Gaza; we call on international human rights organizations to assist with this. We also call on the International Committee of the Red Cross to come out of its silence and call out the violations against our prisoners," the statement read, as reported by The New Arab on Thursday.

The UN panel of experts, in a joint statement on Monday, confirmed evidence of at least two cases of rape, along with other instances of humiliation and threats of rape by Israeli forces against Palestinian women.

The UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls noted that the true extent of sexual violence could be significantly higher.

“We might not know for a long time what the actual number of victims are,” Alsalem, appointed special rapporteur by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2021, said.

“I would say that, on the whole, violence and dehumanization of Palestinian women and children and civilians has been normalized throughout this war,” Alsalem added.

The UN experts expressed distress over reports that women and girls “have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers.”

The panel also highlighted other cases of Israeli violence against Palestinian women, noting that “Palestinian women and girls have reportedly been arbitrarily executed in Gaza, often together with family members, including their children.”

“We are shocked by reports of the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they sought refuge, or while fleeing.”

“There are disturbing reports of at least one female infant forcibly transferred by the Israeli army into Israel, and of children being separated from their parents, whose whereabouts remain unknown,” they stated.

The Israeli regime launched a relentless war on Gaza on October 7, following a surprise attack by the Palestinian resistance group, in retaliation to the Israeli entity's long-standing violence against Palestinians.

The regime's campaign has led to the deaths of at least 29,514 Palestinians and wounded more than 69,616 others in Gaza. The conflict has also forced 1.9 million people – 85 percent of Gaza’s population – to flee their homes.

Many more Gazans are unaccounted for and believed to be buried under the debris in Gaza, which is under a “total blockade” by Israel.