GENEVA - The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences, Reem Alsalem, today called for immediate global action to halt what she described as an unfolding "femi-genocide" in Gaza, saying the scale and nature of the crimes inflicted on Palestinian women and girls by Israeli forces are so extreme that existing concepts in legal and criminal frameworks can no longer adequately describe or capture them.
"What is happening to Palestinian women and girls is not collateral damage of war," Alsalem said. "It is the intentional destruction of their lives and bodies, for being Palestinian and for being women."
The Special Rapporteur reiterated findings from her recent report to the Human Rights Council stating that Israel is deliberately killing Palestinian women and girls with the intent to destroy them and the continuity of the Palestinian people. She called this a "femi-genocide". According to estimates, women and girls account for 67 percent of the 57,680 Palestinians killed by 9 July 2025.
"There is more than one way to subject a people to genocide. Destroying them in whole or in part psychologically is one of them," the expert said. "The horrors that Palestinian mothers, in particular, continue to endure - watching their children slowly starve, killed, maimed, and buried alive - is killing them repeatedly in a single day. The psychological trauma they, and all Palestinians in Gaza, are suffering knows no boundaries." Many women, including mothers, have also been killed while seeking food and water for their families.
Alsalem highlighted the use of reproductive violence as part of Israel's campaign. "The destruction of Gaza's health infrastructure has reportedly left 150,000 pregnant and lactating women without access to essential care. An estimated 17,000 of these women and 60,000 children under five now suffer from acute malnutrition. At least 60 children have died from starvation since March 2025, following Israel's blockade on food, medical supplies, and humanitarian aid," she said. "This is in addition to the 50,000 children who have been reported killed or injured since October 2023."
She condemned the Israeli authorities' latest move to block the entry of baby formula, while warning that the ongoing fuel shortages further endanger the lives of newborns in incubators. She noted that dozens of infants have been born prematurely, died shortly after birth, while others have been born with unprecedented genetic mutations, likely caused by starvation, trauma, and exposure to radioactive and toxic material.
The Special Rapporteur also raised alarm over reports of sexual violence, including rape, committed by Israeli forces. She stressed that, within Gaza, a climate of desperation, overcrowding and lack of assistance and protection services has led to spikes in sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and other forms of abuse, often perpetrated by family members and others within the community.
"The violence and atrocities that Palestinian women are subjected to have become so normalised that they are now the new accepted reality, even in other conflicts. No one seems to bat an eyelid anymore when hearing about the terror women are experiencing," the expert said. "With the dismantling of the law-based order and the protections it guarantees to civilians, the situation for women and girls is metastasising beyond Gaza and Palestine, with devastating consequences for all."
Alsalem urged States to spare no efforts to end the genocide in Gaza, ensure justice for all, and include the differentiated experiences of women and girls in all accountability processes. "The continuity of Palestinian life depends on it. Our collective humanity and future depend on it," she said.
