A new report by UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem accuses Israel of "femicide, reproductive violence, and using attacks on mothers as a tool of genocide," but presents contested allegations as established fact while entirely omitting the experiences of Israeli women and mothers during and after the October 7 Hamas attacks.
The 22-page report 'Violence Against Mothers' was issued this week in all official UN languages. Its stated intention is to examine the main forms and manifestations of violence experienced by women and girls because of their status as mothers. For the purpose of the report, women and girls are considered mothers if they have given birth, are pregnant, or if they adopt children.
In the section 'Conflicts and Crises,' Alsalem writes that "mothers are attacked and killed with the intent of destroying a group in whole or in part, including through femicide in contexts such as the Gaza Strip or Afghanistan."
Alsalem, alongside other UN independent experts, has accused Israel of 'femicide' before.
'Femicide' - the intentional killing of women or girls because of their gender - is not a standalone international crime under the Rome Statute of the ICC in the way that genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes are.
Additionally to that, no single international court, including the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court, has issued a judgment finding Israel guilty of the crime of femicide.
Nevertheless, this is presented as a fact by Alsalem.
Report presents genocide allegation despite no international court ruling
In the same section, she writes that "reproductive violence is also increasingly reported in conflict, disproportionately affecting mothers, including as a tool of genocide in Myanmar and the Sudan, as well as the State of Palestine." While the accusation of genocide has been increasingly levelled against Israel, Israel has not been found guilty of genocide by any international court.
Alsalem then says that "in the first one hundred days of the Israeli invasion of Gaza after 7 October 2023, on average, two mothers were killed every hour" and "Palestinian mothers and their children were specifically targeted by Israel with genocidal language."
The two mothers an hour statistic circulated in January 2024, and is based on casualty data reported by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
Alsalem then writes that "Another emblematic example [of reproductive violence] was the destruction of an in vitro fertilization clinic in Gaza in 2023, where thousands of embryos and other reproductive specimens were destroyed."
She refers here to the Al-Basma IVF Centre, Gaza's largest fertility clinic, which was indeed destroyed during the war in December 2023, resulting in the loss of thousands of embryos and reproductive samples. While a UN Commission of Inquiry later concluded that Israeli forces intentionally targeted the clinic and found no evidence it was a military objective, Israel disputes allegations that it deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure and rejects the Commission's conclusions.
Likewise, when Alsalem speaks of "Deliberate and large-scale attacks on healthcare systems and personnel, including maternal and neonatal services," such as in "Tigray in Ethiopia, Gaza and the Sudan," she makes no mention of the fact that healthcare facilities were targeted in Gaza due to their use by Hamas terrorists as headquarters or human shields.
She repeats her accusation about "deliberate attacks on healthcare services," later in the report in the context of Israel's strikes on Lebanon in 2026, with no mention of the reason for the strikes in the first place.
In the same section, Alsalem writes "In the Islamic Republic of Iran, due to the aggression of the United States and Israel in 2026, achievements in reducing maternal mortality and the gains in girls’ education are likely to be reversed."
She makes no mention anywhere in the report of violence against women and girls in Iran by the Islamic Regime, despite this been well-documented.
In the section on psychological violence, "Violence against mothers is often inflicted through violence against their children," adding that "Mothers suffer severe trauma upon learning that their children have been killed."
She cites the statistic that "between October 2023 and February 2026, mothers in Gaza lost at least 21,289 children." This figure is taken from the 5 February 2026 Unicef report, which does not itself cite its sources. However, given that the other statistics in the Unicef report are the same as those cited by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, it is likely that 21,289 figure is too. It is therefore worth noting that the Ministry does not differentiate between child civilian deaths and child combatant deaths. The killing of a Hamas terrorist who is under the age of 18 would therefore be included in this total.
Israeli mothers and October 7 victims omitted from UN report
Zooming out, there is a striking absence in Alsalem's report of any mention of the impact of war or terrorism on Israeli mothers and girls.
The Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023, resulted in the murder of approximately 1,200 people, including at least 300 women. Around 251 people were taken hostage, including 65 women and over 30 children. Some of these women were mothers, and all of them were daughters of mothers, who were of course impacted by the killing or hostage-taking.
Hamas and other Palestinian actors used sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, against women on October 7 and against female and male hostages in Gaza captivity.
Israeli women and girls taken hostage experienced prolonged captivity, separation from families, sexual violence and abuse, and prolonged psychological distress.
Aside from this, the war displaced hundreds of thousands of Israelis, including many women and girls, from communities near Gaza and later from northern Israel. This disrupted education, employment and family life, and caused trauma for many.
Women have also been acutely affected by having partners who are either serving in the military or have been killed in the military. Many women now face the burden of raising children on their own.
Israeli figures state that 350 women have been widowed and over 885 children orphaned since October 7.
But in Alsalem's report, these women and children are absent.