A UN-backed investigation accuses Israel of committing "genocidal acts" and gender-based violence against Palestinians during its conflict with Hamas. The report cites systematic destruction of healthcare facilities and abuse of detainees. Israel rejects the claims as biased and antisemitic. The findings may support war crimes charges, while the ICJ is already examining genocide allegations against Israel.

A United Nations-backed investigation stated on Thursday that Israel has committed "genocidal acts" during its conflict with the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

"Israel … carried out genocidal acts through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities," according to a report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.

The UN also found that Israel has "increasingly employed sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinians as part of a broader effort to undermine their right to self-determination."

The investigation outlined evidence of "a broad range of violations" against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza since Hamas, which de facto governs the Strip, launched a terror attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

"The evidence collected by the Commission reveals a deplorable increase in sexual and gender-based violence," the Commission's chair, former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, said.

"There is no escape from the conclusion that Israel has employed sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians to terrorize them and perpetuate a system of oppression," she added.

The report was published after two days of hearings this week, where Palestinians alleged being detained by Israeli security forces for days while naked, being punched in the genitals, and being starved.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the report's findings, calling them 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 posted on X.

Netanyahu added that the UN's Human Rights Council — which Israel withdrew from in February — had been exposed as "a rotten, terrorist-supporting, and irrelevant body."

Israel's permanent mission to the UN in Geneva said that its armed forces have "concrete directives … and policies which unequivocally prohibit such misconduct."

The Commission's findings could potentially be used as evidence to prosecute Israel for war crimes or other human rights violations.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN's top court, has opened a case brought by South Africa into allegations of genocide against Israel during its campaign in Gaza.

The ICJ ordered Israel in January 2024 to take measures to prevent acts of genocide being committed during the war against Hamas.

A previous report by the UN Commission, published in June last year, accused Hamas and other Palestinian militants of sexual violence during the October 7 attack, which triggered the Gaza war.