Hamas celebrates UN call for probe into alleged IDF abuses of Palestinian women

Hamas released a statement to their Telegram channel on Tuesday praising a Monday statement by UN experts calling for a probe into alleged violations by IDF troops against Palestinian women.

The UN statement reported that their experts had received information alleging that Palestinian women and girls had been arbitrarily executed in Gaza, frequently along with family members, including 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,” the statement from UN experts read. “Some of them were reportedly holding white pieces of cloth when they were killed by the Israeli army or affiliated forces.”

According to the statement, the experts had also received reports that Palestinian women and girls were subjected to sexual assault, including rape, and being strip-searched by male army officers.

"Additional evidence of crimes"

Hamas claimed the UN experts’ statement was “confirmation and additional evidence of the crime of genocide and ethnic cleansing committed by the occupation led by the war criminal Netanyahu and his Nazi army against our people.”

Hamas added that while the terror organization appreciated the statement, they also called for it to be added as another document in the case filed to the International Court of Justice “to examine the crimes of genocide committed by the criminal Zionist entity against our Palestinian people.”

The UN went on to state, “We remind the Government of Israel of its obligation to uphold the right to life, safety, health, and dignity of Palestinian women and girls and to ensure that no one is subjected to violence, torture, ill-treatment or degrading treatment, including sexual violence.” 

The UN added that the statement was issued by Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls and Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories.

In December, The Jerusalem Post reported that Alsalem had dismissed Hamas’s rape and sexual abuse of women during its October 7 rampage through southern Israel as “disinformation.”

Albanese, has a history of making statements that have caused backlash, with critics accusing her of antisemitism.

Responding to a statement on X, formerly Twitter, this month from French President Emmanuel Macron, Albanese remarked, “The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism but in response to Israel’s oppression.”