Human rights violations against Palestinians by Israel
According to the United States Department of State[a] and international, Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations, there have been credible reports of human rights violations committed against Palestinians by Israel, some amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Reports of human rights violations against Palestinians by Israel include reports of illegal or random killings, random or unwarranted detention (both of Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories) restrictions on Palestinians residing in Jerusalem including random or illegal interference with privacy, family, and home, considerable interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and association, limiting and occasionally restricting access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, random or illegal interference with privacy, punishment of family members for alleged offenses by a relative, restrictions on freedom of expression and media including censorship, illegal routine harassment of nongovernmental organizations, unlawful exercise of physical force or intimidation and threats of violence against Palestinians, targeted killings of Palestinians, and labor rights abuses against Palestinian workers. In addition, human rights organizations have described the state of Israel as an apartheid regime.[1][2][3][4]
Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip has been described as a form of collective punishment and a serious violation of international humanitarian law.[5][6] Israel's military campaigns in the Gaza Strip include Operation Cast Lead which was described by the UN Fact Finding Mission as a "a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability."[7]
Israel has also long been accused of illegally harvesting organs of Palestinians. The first evidence of illegal organ harvesting of Palestinians dates back to the early 1990s.[8][9][10] Israel has admitted that Israeli pathologists harvested organs from dead Palestinians without the consent of their families,[11][12] and the first Israeli heart transplant was in fact a stolen Palestinian's organ.[13] Some Israeli physicians have spoken against illegal organ harvesting of Palestinians that is performed without family approval.[14]
Israel illegally harvesting organs of Palestinians
Israel has also long been accused of illegally harvesting organs of Palestinians. The first evidence of illegal organ harvesting of Palestinians dates back to the early 1990s.[8][9][10] Israel has admitted that Israeli pathologists harvested organs from dead Palestinians without the consent of their families,[11][12] and the first Israeli heart transplant was in fact a stolen Palestinian's organ.[13] Some Israeli physicians have spoken against illegal organ harvesting of Palestinians that is performed without family approval.[14] Former Abu Kabir Forensic Institute head, Yehuda Hiss, claimed Israel was killing Palestinians to harvest their organs.[14]
Sexual abuse of Palestinians by IDF soldiers
During the Israel-Hamas war, Palestinian women and girls were subjected to wartime sexual violence. Palestinian women and girls were reportedly randomly executed in Gaza, often together with their children. Palestinian women and girls were deliberately targeted and extrajudicially executed by the invading Israel Defense Forces, even when they were holding white pieces of cloth. Palestinian women and girls were also subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment by the Israel Defense Forces, such as they were denied menstruation pads, food and medicine, and were severely beaten, raped, assaulted, threatened with rape and sexual violence, and subjected to multiple forms of other sexual assaults. Palestinian women and girls were also stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers.[266][267][268][269][270] OHCHR stated that Israeli troops had photographed female detainees in "degrading circumstances" and that the photos had been uploaded online.[269][270]
On 19 February 2024, a group of United Nations special rapporteurs released a report stating, "Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped".[271][272] One of the special rapporteurs, Reem Alsalem, cautioned that the reservation in reporting sexual violence was common due to reprisal concerns. Alsalem stated that since the 7 October attacks, women and girls in Israeli detention had faced an increasingly permissive attitude by Israeli officials towards sexual assault.[273]
The special rapporteurs have also raised concerns over a number of Palestinian women and children going missing, with reports of children being separated from their parents. In one instance a female infant was reportedly forcibly relocated from her parents into Israel.[274] In response to the report, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of State said, "Civilians and detainees must be treated humanely, and in accordance with international humanitarian law."[275] Physicians for Human Rights-Israel also described the sexual humiliation of detainees, including sexual insults and urination on prisoners.[276] The Palestinian Prisoner's Society stated men had been subjected to severe sexual assault, including attempted rape and violating strip searches.[277]
Video evidence surfaced of what was described as a "flagrant violation of international laws related to the protection of civilians" by Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor. Israeli soldiers were shown surrounding detainees in Yatta, Hebron who were being dragged and assaulted by the Israeli soldiers. Many of the detainees had been stripped naked, having both their arms and feet bound, and beaten with the butts of rifles and trampled.[278] Video evidence depicting degradation towards detainees shows Israeli soldiers transporting Palestinians from Ofer prison, all of whom are blindfolded and stripped completely naked.[279] In another video uploaded by an Israeli soldier, a blindfolded and bound Palestinian is shown kneeling on the ground. The soldier taunts him in Arabic, telling him "صباح الخير يا قحبة" (Good morning, whore) before repeatedly kicking and spitting on him.[280] On 11 December, Human Rights Watch director, Omar Shakir, stated the blindfolding and stripping of Palestinian detainees represented a war crime.[281]