Shafaqna English- There are “many layers of violence that is being perpetuated against Palestinian women” by Israel, Reem Alsalem, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls.
In an interview with Anadolu for International Women’s Day, marked annually on March 8, Alsalem stressed that there should be “no impunity” for any crimes of gender-based violence.
“Any crimes of gender-based violence that may have been committed in the context of Palestine or Israel, like in the rest of the world, should be, first of all, investigated independently and impartially,” she said. “There should be no impunity for these crimes.”
Sexual violence and degrading treatment
A group of UN’s experts have recently spoken of credible allegations of severe human rights violations targeting Palestinian women and girls in Gaza and the occupied West Bank since Israel launched its war on Gaza last October
The UN’s Rights Office has said it received information of rapes and threats of rape and sexual violence, while Palestinian women released from Israeli detention have repeatedly spoken about sexual assaults, strip-searches and physical abuse by Israeli soldiers.
Palestinian woman forced to strip naked by Israeli soldiers in Gaza
Fatema Tambora recalls abuses, torture at hands of Israeli soldiers after being arrested in Gaza City. Fatema Tambora can’t forget the moment of being strip-searched by Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip.
“They forcibly removed my Hijab, aggressively examined me through an electronic device, and placed it on sensitive parts of my body,” the Palestinian mother, who did not give her age, told Anadolu on Friday.
“They forcibly removed my Hijab, aggressively examined me through an electronic device, and placed it on sensitive parts of my body.”
Sources: Anadolu Ajansı