"More Than a Human Can Bear": Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023
"More Than a Human Can Bear":
Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023
Executive Summary of UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry Report
On 13 March 2025 the United Nations Independent International Commission of lnquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, (the Commission) issued its report entitled, “More Than a Human Can Bear”. The report focuses on the systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence by the Israeli Security Forces since 7 October 2023, within the broader context of Israel’s prolonged occupation and military operations in Gaza.
The Commission found that these acts are not isolated or incidental, but form part of a deliberate and coordinated pattern of discriminatory violations and crimes perpetrated within a system of oppression and domination imposed by Israel as the occupying power. The report demonstrates that the frequency, prevalence, and severity of sexual and gender-based crimes perpetrated across the Occupied Palestinian Territory reflect a pattern in which such violence is increasingly used as a method of war to destabilize, dominate, oppress, and destroy the Palestinian people.
Grounded in verified digital evidence, victim and witness testimonies, and reports from civil society and women’s rights organizations, the Commission presents compelling evidence that Israeli authorities have systematically engaged in acts amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. These include acts of wilful killing, extermination, starvation as a method of warfare, collective punishment, and the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities.
The Commission found that sexual violence and torture de facto form part of Israeli forces’ standard operating procedures towards Palestinians, and that Israeli authorities have deliberately destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, including by imposing measures intended to prevent births - acts which fall within the categories of genocidal acts under the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention. These acts and the deliberate targeting of Palestinian women and girls, have caused immediate physical and mental harm and suffering, with long-term effects on the reproductive and fertility prospects of Palestinians in Gaza and their ability to exist as a group.
The report concludes that sexual, reproductive, and other forms of gender-based violence constitute a major element in Israel’s ill-treatment of Palestinians and, in the wider context, the unlawful occupation and the oppression of Palestinians as a group. These crimes are used systematically as a tool to further entrench Palestinian subordination, maintain the Israeli system of oppression, and deny Palestinians their right to self-determination.