Silenced Suffering: Gendered Human Rights Abuses in Palestine
Posted by DAISY CHAPMAN 15 April 2025
For nearly 77 years, Palestinian women in Gaza and the occupied West Bank have faced a relentless cycle of violence, oppression and systemic human rights violations under Israeli occupation. While global discussions on Palestine and Israel often centre around military conflict and humanitarian crises, the specific struggles of women often remain overshadowed by the broader spectrum of human rights violations.
Systemic violence committed against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank has long predated the attacks of October 7th 2023. News channel Al Jazeera reports that, since October 2023, 61,709 people have been killed in Gaza, including over 17,000 children. However, BBC news reports this figure to be lower, reporting 50,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza since
October 7th 2023, despite the fact that researchers have estimated that this death toll could be grossly underestimated. British medical journal The Lancet estimated the death toll to be between 55,000 and 78,000.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated in 2024, that Palestinian women and girls have ‘been arbitrarily executed in Gaza, often together with family members, including their children’. Many of these women have been murdered along with their children while seeking refuge, often holding up pieces of white cloth before being killed by the Israeli Military, the Israel Defence Forces.
In May 2024, the UN revealed that over 390 bodies had been found at the Nasser and Al Shifa hospitals, many being women and children, and many showing signs of torture, executions, and potential instances of people buried alive. Statistics show that women and children make up the overwhelming majority of casualties in Gaza, stated by the UN to be nearly 70%. The report also noted the ‘unprecedented’ level of international law violations and war crimes committed by Israel, such as attacks on civilians and hospitals. Additionally, around 80% of these victims were killed in residential buildings such as houses and apartment complexes.
Gaza and the Use of Sexual Violence as a ‘Weapon of War’
In early March 2025, the United Nations Human Rights Commission released a damning report on Israel’s campaign of systematic sexual violence committed against Palestinians, particularly Palestinian women and girls. The commission report, titled ‘More Than a Human Can Bear’ detailed systematic instances of attacks to reproductive healthcare facilities, starvation and reproductive harms, sexual harassment and public shaming of Palestinian women, sexual violence during ground operations and at checkpoints, and sexual violence in detention centres.
It was found that soldiers in the Israeli military have engaged in forced public nudity, forced stripping and sexual humiliation of Palestinian men women and children. Verified witnesses have told the commission that women and families are forced to undress in the street during military raids and ground operations. IDF soldiers have also been documented (often posted to their personal social media accounts) in photos and videos deliberately mocking and humiliating Palestinian women by filming themselves going through drawers of underwear and personal belongings. One video documented a male IDF soldier going through a Palestinian woman’s lingerie and directing gendered and sexualised insults to Palestinian women stating “I've always said Arabs [female pronouns used] are the biggest sluts out there … There you go, here are the sets [of lingerie] here, inside, another new one in the package, they haven’t opened it yet, look at these sets, who wants elastic bodysuits?”.
The UN commission for human rights also detailed sexual violence committed against Palestinians in custody within Israeli detention centres or prison facilities. Between October 2023 and July 2024, over 14,000 Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank were arrested and detained in Israeli detention centres, interrogated and often tortured with physical and sexual violence committed agasinst both men and women. Acts of sexual violence within detention centres have included rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, forced stripping and sexualised humiliation committed against both men and women in detention. Female detainees have been subjected to physical and sexual assaults by IDF soldiers and prison guards that have included being kicked in the genitals, groping and touching of their breasts, attempts to kiss them and threats of sexual assault and rape. One soldier was reported by the commission to have threatened to gang rape a Palestinian woman detainee, as well as to kill her and burn her children. A significant aspect of this section of the Commission’s report on the sexual assault and harassment of Palestinian detainees is its assertion that "the acts of sexual violence documented by the Commission appear to have been driven by extreme hatred toward the Palestinian people, with the intent to dehumanize and punish them."
The commission also noted the usage of sexual assault and rape against male detainees as a further extension of the dehumanisation and humiliation of Palestinians perpetrated at a systemic level. In some cases, male detainees had been raped with objects and assaulted with electrical probes. In late July 2024, allegations surfaced that nine IDF reservists had raped a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention centre, leading to their arrest and subsequent questioning. The detentions ignited protests led by far-right Israeli groups, politicians, and members of the public, who opposed the investigation and defended the actions of the soldiers. Many observers characterized the demonstrations as Israeli 'right to rape' protests. Some protesters went as far as attempting to storm military facilities, demanding the immediate release of the accused soldiers.6 Lawyers representing the IDF reservists stated that the individuals were acting in ‘self defence’ in sexually abusing a Palestinian prisoner. A survey indicated that 65% of the Israeli general public believe that the charged soldiers should not face criminal charges.
Sexual Assault and Harassment of Women at Israeli Checkpoints
Many Palestinian women endure sexual violence, humiliation, and harassment while passing through Israeli checkpoints in the occupied West Bank, often at the hands of security forces. Israeli controlled checkpoints are heavily fortified military barriers used to control and monitor Palestinian movements. These checkpoints, numbering in the hundreds, restrict access between Palestinian towns, villages, and cities, as well as entry into Israel. Palestinians are required to pass through these checkpoints for work, education, medical treatments and other daily activities. One of the most prominent is Qalandiya, which separates Ramallah from Jerusalem, and is one of the busiest and most congested crossings. A report by the UN Human Rights Commission documents numerous allegations of such abuse, including cases where women were forcibly stripped, coerced into removing their veils, and subjected to non-consensual physical contact. Some women reported being beaten, threatened, and verbally assaulted for refusing to comply with demands to remove their clothing. In addition,
Israeli forces have been reported to exploit Palestinian women's limited awareness, empowerment, and understanding of sexual abuse, assault, and rape. Many Palestinian women struggle to recognize their experiences as acts of sexual violence due to limited access to education and awareness on the subject, as well as legal constraints imposed by the Jordanian and Egyptian penal code, which remain in effect in West Bank and Gaza.
Furthermore, Israeli security personnel, including senior officers and high-ranking members of the defense forces, have been documented as using intimidation tactics to silence Palestinian women and deter them from reporting instances of sexual violence and harassment. In one case, a pregnant woman was reportedly threatened with rape by male soldiers, who also extended these threats to her young daughters, aged three and four, while she was in detention.
The Intersection of Israeli Militarism and Violence Against Palestinian Women
The violence inflicted upon Palestinian women by Israeli forces is not merely incidental, but deeply embedded within the broader framework of Israeli militarism and the constructed image of the Israeli soldier. The glorification of the IDF as symbols of strength, power, and heroism, as well as the uber-masculinisation and often sexualisation of IDF soldiers obscures the brutality they inflict, including the use of sexual violence as a weapon of humiliation and subjugation.
At its core, this dynamic reflects the intersection of militarized masculinity and settler colonial violence, where Palestinian women are not only targeted for their identity, but are also subjected to a system that seeks to both erase their agency through fear and abuse. Palestinian women and their children are subjected to collective punishment through the Israeli military’s use of sexual abuse and harassment as a means of retaliatory and oppressive violence against Palestinian resistance to their occupation.
1. Al Jazeera. (2023, October 9). Israel-Hamas war in maps and charts: Live tracker. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker
2. BBC News. (2023). Gaza war death toll could be significantly higher, researchers say. BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqjvl4klzweo
3. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2024, February 19). Israel/oPt: UN experts appalled by reported human rights violations against Palestinian women and girls. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/israelopt-un-experts-appalled-reported-human-rights-violations-against
4. Moench, M. (2024, November 8). Nearly 70% of Gaza war dead verified by UN are women and children. BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn5wel11pgdo
5. United Nations Human Rights Council. (2025). More than a human can bear: Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive, and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023 (A/HRC/58/CRP.6). Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session58/a-hrc-58-crp-6.pdf
6. Al Jazeera. (2024, August 2). Israel’s right to abuse protests explained. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/8/2/israels-right-to-abuse-protests-explained
7. Middle East Eye. (2024, August 18). Majority of Israeli Jews believe prison rape suspects shouldn't face criminal charges. Middle East Eye. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/majority-israelis-prison-rape-no-criminal-charges
8. Photo by Emad El Byed on Unsplashd