This statement was made by Ms. Noura Erakat, human rights attorney and author, at the United Nations Security Council Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security.
President, Excellencies,
Thank you for the opportunity to brief you today.
I am Noura Erakat, a Palestinian-American human rights attorney and author.
Twenty-five years ago, when this body adopted Resolution 1325, the Security Council made an unabashedly feminist commitment to advance gender equality because you understood that women are critical agents for a just peace.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in Palestine, where, for decades, courageous Palestinian women have resisted dispossession, removal, apartheid and now, genocide. Yet nowhere have the tenets of the Women, Peace and Security agenda — of equality, inclusivity, accountability and respect for human rights — been more out of reach. In Gaza, one woman and one girl have been killed every hour for the past 730 days.[1]
Despite the recent enthusiasm to end this war, the terms of the current proposal are setting up Palestinians to live under permanent occupation and siege.[2] The end of this genocide cannot come at the expense of accountability and justice for its survivors.
The voices of Palestinian women have been notably absent from this chamber.[3] I am here today because my Palestinian sisters cannot be. Those who are able to travel outside the besieged bantustans Israel has created across Palestine are denied visas to the United States (US).[4] Others face reprisals for speaking out.
This Council should be doing everything in its power to recognize and support Palestinian women as agents of change. But when a people are enduring genocide, the first priority is life.
Today, I will show how Israel’s ongoing Nakba in Gaza intends to destroy the Palestinian people in violation of the Genocide Convention.[5] I will detail how attacks on the reproductive capacity of Palestinian women and girls collectively aim to eliminate the possibility of a Palestinian future, in four stages.
One, it is a struggle for Palestinians to survive, let alone conceive in Gaza: 92 percent of residential buildings have been destroyed, leaving no quarter for privacy or intimacy.[6] Further, the systematic sexual abuse and torture of Palestinians in captivity — including rape of men, women and children; filmed forced nudity; and electrocution of genitalia[7] — have resulted in mental and physical trauma that impede an ability to engage in sexual intimacy at all.[8] Recently, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel concluded that the bombing of the Al-Basma Fertility Clinic that destroyed 4,000 embryos and over 1,000 vials of sperm and unfertilized eggs was a measure intended to prevent births.[9] Between 2022 and 2025, the birth rate of Palestinians in Gaza has declined by 41 percent.[10]
Two, even if Palestinian women manage to conceive, it is a struggle to carry life to full gestation: In addition to the trauma of incessant bombardment,[11] attacks on medical facilities,[12] hunger and disease, it is impossible for women to meet basic needs, let alone access their sexual and reproductive rights. Shema Jaber Thabet became pregnant with her first child during the genocide. On the day her shelter in Nusayrat was attacked, Shema described how she fled by foot without destination, how she saw women fainting from shock and children screaming in fear, how she felt that it was “truly a day of judgment.” A week later, doctors told her that her baby would not survive.[13] By 2024, the rate of miscarriage in Gaza had increased by 300 percent.[14]
Three, even if Palestinian women manage to carry life, it is a struggle to deliver: As of August, some 55,000 Palestinian women lack access to prenatal care,[15] increasing the risk of postpartum hemorrhage, the leading cause of maternal death.[16] Maha went into labor in Rafah when the city, originally home to 300,000 people, was sheltering 1.5 million. She was turned away from the hospital due to capacity constraints and forced to deliver in a public bathroom.[17] Maha is not an exception: every week, at least 15 women in Gaza deliver in appalling conditions.[18] And those that do reach a hospital do not fare much better, like Shaimaa Ftouh, who endured a caesarean section without anesthesia. She described the pain as “beyond human tolerance.”[19]
Four, even if women and their babies survive, it is a struggle to keep Palestinian newborns alive: Famine has been confirmed in Gaza.[20] Over 60 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women are unable to produce milk due to malnutrition.[21] As these women starve, they grow faint with anemia, their teeth may fall out, and their immune systems, already weakened by pregnancy, become even more vulnerable to disease. Many will give birth to underweight babies. Amira’s parents were able to feed her until she was six months old. But when she caught an infectious disease, her parents could do nothing but watch her die.[22] Amira is among at least 450 babies that were born and killed during the genocide.[23]
Taken together, these four stages of attack — on survival and intimacy, pregnancy and gestation, labor and delivery, and childrearing and parenting — show the intensity of attack on the ability of Palestinians in Gaza to reproduce and continue life.
This was always the intention. In May 2025, Zehut Party leader and former member of the Knesset Moshe Feiglin said, “Every child in Gaza is the enemy. We need to occupy Gaza and settle it, and not a single Gazan child will be left there.”[24] He has not been prosecuted for incitement to genocide. Despite an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC),[25] former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who referred to all Palestinians as “human animals,”[26] remains at large.
Just two days after the UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza,[27] the US cast its sixth veto of a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire.[28] And now advances plans to absolve alleged war criminals, to whitewash a genocide we have all witnessed, and to render, once again, Palestinian self-determination into a question at the mercy of outsiders.[29] As enshrined in the UN Charter,[30] our inalienable rights cannot be subject to negotiation.
Palestinians have a right to self-determination in our ancestral homeland. A homeland that has etched the shape and color of our embroidered dresses, that has entwined our family lineages through marriage, that has flavored our most exquisite dishes with the bite of pomegranate molasses and the tang of green olives harvested in the fall, a homeland that has provided grammar for our poetry and holy sites for our worship and pilgrimage. Our survival cannot be conditioned on surrendering our right to build a collective future on this land, which makes life worth living. And our refusal to surrender is precisely why this campaign aims to destroy the Palestinian people.
In its current form, the US proposal is contingent on the removal of Palestinians from the helm of their political future. As emphasized by UN experts on Friday, the political outcome that we all so desperately want cannot be based on outright violations of international law.[31]
Excellencies, you cannot permit brute power to unravel our humanity. I therefore urge you to:
- Insist that any solution to end the genocide not come at the expense of accountability or respect for international law;
- Ensure, as stipulated by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), that the end of occupation is overseen by the UN, not Israel and its allies;[32]
- Protect the integrity of ongoing proceedings at the ICJ[33] and the ICC;[34]
- End the transfer of arms and other equipment or items, including jet fuel, to Israel;[35]
- Pursue prosecution of individuals, corporations and media companies complicit in genocide; and
- Ensure that Palestinian women can meaningfully participate in rebuilding their societies and ultimately forging our collective future.
Should you be paralyzed by fear, I encourage you to look to Palestinian women — they refuse to surrender. Neither should you.
Thank you.
Photo: UN Photo/Evan Schneider
[1] UN Women, “UN Women estimates over 28,000 women and girls killed in Gaza since October 2023,” 19 May 2025, https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/news/2025/05/un-women-estimates-over-28000-women-and-girls-killed-in-gaza-since-october-2023.
[2] See OHCHR, “Palestine: Any peace plan must respect international law, beginning with self-determination and accountability, urge UN experts,” 3 October 2025, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/palestine-any-peace-plan-must-respect-international-law-beginning-self.
[3] Only one Palestinian woman has briefed the Security Council since 7 October 2023 (see S/PV.9846, 23 January 2025), the first to do so since January 2022 (see S/PV.8950, 19 January 2022).
[4] James FitzGerald, “US suspends most visas for Palestinian passport-holders, reports say,” BBC News, 1 September 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpv099421pro.
[5] Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, “Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” 16 September 2025, A/HRC/60/CRP.3, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session60/advance-version/a-hrc-60-crp-3.pdf; Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Arts. 2(b), (c) and (d), 78 UNTS 277, 9 December 1948, https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf.
[6] OCHA, “Reported impact snapshot – Gaza Strip (17 September 2025),” 17 September 2025, https://www.ochaopt.org/content/reported-impact-snapshot-gaza-strip-17-september-2025.
[7] Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, “‘More than a human can bear’: Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023,” ¶115-127, 13 March 2025, A/HRC/58/CRP.6, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session58/a-hrc-58-crp-6.pdf.
[8] Hala Shoman, “Israel’s War on Reproduction in Gaza,” Middle East Research and Information Project, 11 June 2025, https://merip.org/2025/06/israels-war-on-reproduction-in-gaza/.
[9] Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, “Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” ¶151-155, 16 September 2025, A/HRC/60/CRP.3, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session60/advance-version/a-hrc-60-crp-3.pdf; Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, “‘More than a human can bear’: Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023,” ¶175, 13 March 2025, A/HRC/58/CRP.6, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session58/a-hrc-58-crp-6.pdf.
[10] UNFPA, “UNFPA warns of catastrophic birth outcomes in Gaza amid starvation, psychological trauma and collapsing healthcare,” 23 July 2025, https://arabstates.unfpa.org/en/news/unfpa-warns-catastrophic-birth-outcomes-gaza-amid-starvation-psychological-trauma-and.
[11] For instance, OCHA reported that from 25-26 September 2025 alone, Israeli air strikes hit Gaza an average of every eight to nine minutes. “Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General,” 26 September 2025, https://press.un.org/en/2025/db250926.doc.htm.
[12] See for example OCHA, “Humanitarian Situation Update #326 – Gaza Strip,” 25 September 2025, https://www.ochaopt.org/content/humanitarian-situation-update-326-gaza-strip.
[13] Sarah Ihmoud, “Hunger and the Palestinian Womb,” 30 September 2025, https://decolonialhacker.org/article/hunger-and-the-palestinian-womb.
[14] Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, “‘More than a human can bear’: Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023,” ¶58, 13 March 2025, A/HRC/58/CRP.6, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session58/a-hrc-58-crp-6.pdf.
[15] UNFPA, “Palestine Situation Report #19 – July & August 2025,” 22 September 2025, https://palestine.unfpa.org/en/publications/palestine-situation-report-19-july-august-2025.
[16] Human Rights Watch, “‘Five Babies in One Incubator’: Violations of Pregnant Women’s Rights Amid Israel’s Assault on Gaza,” p. 23, 28 January 2025, https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2025/01/gaza_pregnancy0125%20web_0.pdf.
[17] Doctors Without Borders, “Maha gave birth in a public bathroom. Her story is not unique in Gaza,” 30 January 2024, https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/maha-gave-birth-public-bathroom-her-story-not-unique-gaza.
[18] UNFPA, “Attacks on Gaza City are destroying health and protection services for pregnant women and survivors of violence,” 15 September 2025, https://arabstates.unfpa.org/en/news/attacks-gaza-city-are-destroying-health-and-protection-services-pregnant-women-and-survivors.
[19] Amal Helles, Gabrielle Weininger and Dominic Hauschild, “Giving birth in Gaza: the mother who had a c-section without anaesthetic,” The Times, 18 January 2025, https://www.thetimes.com/world/middle-east/israel-hamas-war/article/im-joyful-at-the-ceasefire-but-fear-for-my-baby-a-gaza-mothers-tale-kxsglc0v2.
[20] IPC, “Gaza Strip: Famine confirmed in Gaza Governorate, projected to expand,” 22 August 2025, https://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_Gaza_Strip_Acute_Food_Insecurity_Malnutrition_July_Sept2025_Special_Snapshot.pdf.
[21] UNFPA, “Palestine Situation Report #19 – July & August 2025,” 22 September 2025, https://palestine.unfpa.org/en/publications/palestine-situation-report-19-july-august-2025.
[22] Hala Shoman, “Israel’s War on Reproduction in Gaza,” Middle East Research and Information Project, 11 June 2025, https://merip.org/2025/06/israels-war-on-reproduction-in-gaza/.
[23] Save the Children, “Gaza: 20,000 children killed in 23 months of war – more than one child killed every hour,” 6 September 2025, https://www.savethechildren.net/news/gaza-20000-children-killed-23-months-war-more-one-child-killed-every-hour.
[24] Middle East Eye, “Far-right Israeli figure calls every child in Gaza ‘the enemy’,” 21 May 2025, https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/far-right-israeli-figure-calls-every-child-gaza-enemy.
[25] International Criminal Court, “Situation in the State of Palestine: ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I rejects the State of Israel’s challenges to jurisdiction and issues warrants of arrest for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant,” 21 November 2024, https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-rejects-state-israels-challenges.
[26] Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, “Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” ¶111, 16 September 2025, A/HRC/60/CRP.3, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session60/advance-version/a-hrc-60-crp-3.pdf.
[27] Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, “Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” 16 September 2025, A/HRC/60/CRP.3, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session60/advance-version/a-hrc-60-crp-3.pdf.
[28] Yolande Knell, “US blocks UN call for Gaza ceasefire for sixth time,” BBC News, 18 September 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3yj41083no; S/PV.10000, 18 September 2025.
[29] Natasha Turak, “U.S.-run ‘Gaza Riviera’: Post-war redevelopment plan sees ‘voluntary relocation’ of millions,” CNBC News, 1 September 2025, https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/01/gaza-riviera-trump-administration-weighs-post-war-redevelopment-plan.html.
[30] Charter of the United Nations, Art. 1(2), 26 June 1945, https://untso.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/united_nations_charter.pdf.
[31] OHCHR, “Palestine: Any peace plan must respect international law, beginning with self-determination and accountability, urge UN experts,” 3 October 2025, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/palestine-any-peace-plan-must-respect-international-law-beginning-self.
[32] International Court of Justice, “Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,” ¶281-283, 19 July 2024, https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/186/186-20240719-adv-01-00-en.pdf.
[33] International Court of Justice, “Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel),” accessed 5 October 2025, https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192.
[34] International Criminal Court, “Investigation – Situation in the State of Palestine,” ICC-01/18, accessed 5 October 2025, https://www.icc-cpi.int/palestine.
[35] Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, “Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” ¶257(b), 16 September 2025, A/HRC/60/CRP.3, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session60/advance-version/a-hrc-60-crp-3.pdf.