Sexual Violence and Bodily Autonomy in Palestine
- Genocide Watch
- 11 hours ago
- 5 min read
By Grace Harris and Franzie Schatzl
Sexual and gender-based violence is pervasive in conflict today. Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) includes crimes such as rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, sterilization, forced marriage, and other acts of a similar nature perpetrated against people in a conflict-related setting. Often, perpetrators are members of military forces, militias, or terrorist organizations. International law now recognizes CRSV, once thought of as an inevitable fact of war, as a distinct crime. As prior Genocide Watch reporting has found, perpetrators use rape and other forms of sexual violence as an act of genocide, notably in Sudan. Similarly, in Palestine, decades of subjugation have become intertwined with gender-based violence and a denial of bodily autonomy.
The use of gender-based violence against Palestinians as a tool of demographic control and dehumanization is not a new tactic. As Palestinian feminist groups have asserted, settler colonial dynamics are heavily gendered and sexualized. Historically, Palestinian women have faced intimate partner violence, familial "honor" killings, a lack of legal protection, and a denial of agency in times of peace, aggravated during times of conflict. As recent reporting has found, Israel has systematically weaponized sexual, reproductive, and other forms of gender-based violence, rising in frequency and severity, since the outbreak of Hamas attacks, war, and genocide in 2023.
As independent investigations found, military leaders explicitly ordered these crimes or implicitly encouraged them. Sexual harassment, rape threats, assault, and forced stripping are all standard military operations. Sexual violence, which United Nations (UN) experts identify as a tool of occupation, intimidation, and displacement, is perpetuated in house raids, detention, and everyday interactions. Checkpoints operate not solely as restrictions on movement, but as mechanisms of bodily control. State and military systems have institutionalized gender-based violence (GBV) and violations of bodily autonomy as tools of terror in private and public spheres simultaneously, reinforcing uneven power dynamics and contributing to further dehumanization.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reports a “war against women” waged by the Israeli Defense Forces and settlers with thousands killed and hundreds of thousands in precarious conditions. Historically, GBV in genocidal contexts has served as a method of eradication – impacting people today and future generations with long term damages to reproduction. Women are more likely to experience violence as civilians than combatants. Likewise, the disproportionate targeting of Palestinian children directly undermines the future of Palestinian communities.
The weaponization of sexual violence extends into the West Bank as well, used as a tool of settler colonial expansion. Both Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and Israeli settlers have been reported to use sexual assault and harassment to displace Palestinians and reshape community dynamics. Violent attacks, invasive body searches, lewd exposure, stalking, and forced stripping are just some of the many instances of violence. Furthermore, social stigma and humiliation cause ostracization and serve as driving factors for displacement.
Within the Israeli prison system, widespread and lasting issues are clear. Testimonies from former prisoners share stories of systematic abuse, torture, starvation, and violent attacks. Many of their stories include cases of rape, sexual violence, and other forms of abuse with sexualized and gendered dynamics. Men and women alike face targeted gender-based violence with deep psychological impacts.
Beyond this, the structural impacts of the devastation of civilian infrastructure in Gaza constitute another insidious form of gender-based violence. Humanitarian aid restrictions carry further gendered dynamics, as the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system and the loss of access to maternal, sexual, and reproductive care disproportionately affects women and girls. Israel’s latest restrictions issued on December 30, 2025, limited the operations of 37 humanitarian organizations. With only half of all hospitals operating after 930 attacks since October 2023, most of these only partiallyfunctional, Gaza’s fragile health system is already operating past its capacity and cannot fill the gaps left by aid organizations. This will leave tens of thousands of Palestinian women and girls without menstrual or maternal care, safe facilities to give birth in, or access to counseling services for sexual violence. This has led to an increase in maternal morbidity, stillbirths and miscarriages.
Furthermore, targeting residential buildings results in high civilian casualties and the dissolution of community structures. The attack on a women’s rights center in Gaza City in November 2023, despite no evident military justification, illustrates this dynamic. The facility provided refuge for survivors of GBV, making its destruction particularly consequential as pre-existing patriarchal structures, interfamilial violence (including “honor” killings), and GBV have all been significantly exacerbated. Perpetrators accompanied the destruction with gendered and sexualized graffiti, signalizing intent beyond military objectives assault on the structures that sustain community resilience.
At the psychological level, the impacts of GBV are profound and enduring. Shame can lead to silence and underreporting. Women’s bodies are tied to communal notions of honor, retaliation, and identity beyond the individual. Cases of forced stripping or removal of religious veils violate dignity and fracture identity, with individual traumas inseparable from collective retaliation. “Justice” for sexual violence against Israeli women on October 7, 2023, has arguably been mobilized within discourses of national masculinity and revenge as well. Bodies become symbolic battlegrounds, where violations are interpreted as affronts to collective honor. This dynamic perpetuates enduring cycles of violence where Palestinian bodies of all genders are subjected to acts intended to feminize, humiliate and collectively punish.
Alarmingly, these patterns persist within a context of striking impunity, as investigations by the OHCHR found no meaningful effort by Israeli forces to prevent, prosecute or respond to the documented instances. The absence of accountability reinforces their function as tools for policy and control. Israeli law does not adequately protect Palestinians, leaving significant gaps in access to justice.
Ultimately, bodily autonomy must be understood as the non-negotiable foundation of human rights. Its violation is not isolated, but intersects with restrictions on movement, healthcare, political agency, and social participation. Global hierarchies of race, gender, and class shape the normalization of these violations and determine whose pain institutions recognize. Centrally, sexual violence in conflict is not an inevitable byproduct of war, but a strategy that governments and institutions can prevent. Without accountability, recognition, and structural change, the erosion of bodily autonomy will remain central to ongoing violence.
As identified in prior analysis, Genocide Watch recognizes Palestine to encompass all Ten Stages of Genocide. The gendered dynamics of violence indicate Stage 3: Discrimination and Stage 8: Persecution in particular. The systemic nature, scale and intent combined with reproductive and social consequences underscores broader processes of destruction.
Genocide Watch recommends:
The Government of Israel must uphold the October 2025 ceasefire, stop West Bank expansion, begin a process of transitional justice, and follow ICJ orders to prevent and mitigate genocide.
The IDF, Ministry of Defense, Military Advocate General, and Attorney General's Office should immediately cease and prosecute all acts of GBV committed by military personnel or settlers at all levels of command, and in full cooperation with international accountability mechanisms.
The UN Special Rapporteur and Independent International Commission should monitor and enforce compliance, paying particular attention to conditions of gender-based violence.
The Government of Israel and relevant border authorities should facilitate rapid and unrestricted delivery of humanitarian assistance, ensuring access to essential medical, psychological, and material support and restoring healthcare infrastructure.
International partners like UN Women should aid and promote the establishment of survivor-centered frameworks for documentation, justice, and community healing in accordance with Palestinian civil society organizations and the Palestinian Authority.
