Israeli soldiers and settlers are using sexualised violence to displace Palestinians, a new report finds. Britain should pull every lever available to stop this
A new report documenting gendered and sexualised violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has intensified pressure on Britain and its allies to confront the brutal realities of Israel’s occupation and military campaign against Palestinians.
The West Bank Protection Consortium investigated a catalogue of incidents, each representing a “grave violation of bodily integrity and personal dignity”, including forced nudity, invasive body searches, indecent exposure – including to children.
Researchers also documented cases of groping, stalking, threats of rape, and the use of drones to film inside women’s bedrooms and record strip searches.
In many of the cases documented, Israeli forces were present and either failed to intervene or actively participated.
The report comes shortly after a statement from UN Women highlighting the gendered consequences of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, where women and children are disproportionally affected by bombardment, injury, displacement, starvation and the collapse of healthcare services.
Taken together, these accounts reveal how gender-based violence operates as an integral feature of Israel’s system of oppression, occupation and genocide.
Britain can – and should – be doing more.
Our international obligations
Where there is credible evidence of serious violations linked to gender-based violence, third countries are obliged under international law not only to refrain from supporting the unlawful acts, but to take steps to prevent and respond to them.
In relation to Israel, these obligations have been reaffirmed through the International Court of Justice’s January 2024 finding of a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and its July 2024 ruling on the unlawfulness of the occupation.
Yet despite mounting evidence of abuses, the UK has continued to offer diplomatic and military support to Israel while failing to take adequate steps to support accountability or pressure its government to change course.
As Chair of Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine, I have spent years reading, speaking and campaigning about the harms inflicted on Palestinians as a result of Israeli military action and occupation.
Yet it was only after attending a recent webinar organised by Gender Action for Peace and Security that I began to understand the scale and systematic nature of Israel’s gendered crimes against Palestinians – from the targeting of women and girls through harassment, indecent exposure, and threats of rape, to the degrading treatment and sexual torture inflicted on men and boys in detention.
Making life unbearable
Speakers stressed how these abuses function as part of a broader coercive environment designed to make everyday life unbearable and drive Palestinians from their homes and communities.
More than two-thirds of displaced households interviewed in the report identified threats to women and children, particularly sexualised violence, as their decisive reason for leaving.
Some families reported arranging early marriages for girls aged 15 to 17 simply so they could move to households believed to be safer.
Speakers also highlighted how underreported many of these violations remain, due to stigma, fear of reprisals, and the culture of impunitysurrounding violence against Palestinians in general.
Evidence from Gaza points to a parallel pattern of gendered harms emerging in the context of Israel’s genocidal assault on the civilian population.
According to Oxfam, more women and children were killed by Israeli bombardment in Gaza between October 2023 – September 2024 than during the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades. Many more have been displaced, widowed or orphaned.
Israel’s systematic blockade of medical supplies and destruction of hospitals and IVF clinics has had severe consequences for women’s reproductive health. By October 2024, women were three times more likely to die from childbirth and three times more likely to miscarry, according to UN analysis.
Newborn deaths have also increased, while the birth rate has fallen dramatically, dropping by more than 40% in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period in 2022. Mothers and newborn children are also more vulnerable to starvation and malnutrition as a result of the blockade.
In this context, a UN Commission of Inquiry found that Israel has systematically imposed measures to prevent births in Gaza, one of the categories of genocidal acts established under the Genocide Convention.
The forced displacement of over 90% of Gaza’s population has created additional gendered harms. Many families now live in overcrowded tents or temporary shelters with limited access to food, sanitation or privacy.
In these conditions, women and girls face increased exposure to violence and exploitation, while also taking on greater responsibility for household survival following the loss, injury or displacement of male family members.
For women experiencing menstruation, the lack of privacy and sanitary products creates a stressful, humiliating and potentially unsafe environment.
Credibility at stake
The growing body of evidence emerging from Gaza and the West Bank should force a reckoning for governments that continue to support Israel while presenting themselves as defenders of human rights and women’s equality internationally.
Expressions of concern are no longer enough when credible reports from humanitarian organisations, UN bodies and Palestinian communities themselves continue to document patterns of abuse that demand accountability.
The UK government should be using every lever available to press for an end to these violations, support international accountability mechanisms, and ensure Britain is not contributing – directly or indirectly – to further abuses.
In addition to upholding our international obligations, the UK should suspend all arms sales with Israel until it complies with international law and ensure gender concerns are integrated into risk assessments and foreign policy decisions such as sanctions and arms transfers.
Failure to take action risks undermining not only international law, but also the credibility of Britain’s stated commitment to protecting women and girls in conflict around the world.
C. Declassified UK
