U.N. Experts Alarmed Over Reports Of Human Rights Violations Against Palestinian Women

United Nations experts are raising the alarm over what they say are credible allegations of “egregious” human rights violations by Israeli forces against Palestinian women and girls in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The human rights experts on Monday said that they received reports describing Palestinian women and girls being arbitrarily executed in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has for more than four months carried out a military offensive as retaliation for Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on the country, which reportedly killed around 1,200 people . According to Gaza health authorities, Israel’s assault on the territory has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians, most of whom are women and children.

“We are shocked by reports of the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they sought refuge, or while fleeing,” the experts said in a statement released by the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, or OHCHR. “Some of them were reportedly holding white pieces of cloth when they were killed by the Israeli army or affiliated forces.”

The experts are part of what is known as the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Special Procedures. The group is the largest body of independent fact-finding experts in the U.N. human rights system, and is usually tasked with addressing either specific situations in a particular country or more thematic issues worldwide. Though the Human Rights Council is responsible for appointing the experts to the Special Procedures group, the experts are neither paid U.N. staffers nor associated with a government.

According to the experts, Israeli forces have arbitrarily detained hundreds of Palestinian women and girls since Oct. 7,