Gaza Human Rights: Putting Israel on the UN Blacklist is a Late but Right Step

According to IRNA, Palestine Today, the center emphasized in the statement: “We welcome the inclusion of Israel for the first time on the United Nations blacklist on sexual violence in conflict. Although this action is a step in the right direction, it is late and does not fully reflect the true scale of violations of the rights of Palestinian detainees.”

The Gaza Center for Human Rights added: The UN report documented only 31 cases of sexual violence against Palestinian men, women, and children in Israeli detention centers, while testimonies from released individuals indicate that the number of victims of sexual violence in Israeli prisons may reach thousands.

The statement said: “All Palestinian detainees have experienced varying degrees of sexual violence and humiliation inside Israeli detention facilities. We condemn Israel’s systematic campaign against the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Watch and other human rights organizations that document crimes of torture and sexual violence, and consider these actions to be part of an effort to ensure impunity, silence witnesses and destroy evidence.”

The Gaza Center for Human Rights emphasized: We demand immediate permission for international investigative teams to enter all Israeli places of detention, and we also emphasize the need to lift restrictions on the international press and their access to Gaza and Israeli prisons.

The center has also called on the International Criminal Court to investigate crimes of sexual violence as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Gaza Human Rights emphasized at the end of the statement that the Israeli regime’s blacklisting will only be meaningful if it translates into binding actions and real accountability.