Gender power as a tool of torture: A gender-competent legal and fact analysis of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinians from Gaza since 7 October 2023
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/torture.v35i2.156988Keywords:
torture and ill-treatment, gender-based torture, sexual and reproductive violence, technology-facilitated violence, arrest and detentionAbstract
Introduction: This article examines the gendered dimensions of torture and ill-treatment perpetrated by Israeli Forces against Palestinians from Gaza following the escalation of hostilities after 7 October 2023. It investigates whether gender is a secondary feature of the violence or rather a central mechanism through which suffering, intentionality and purpose are inflicted. It probes into whether traditional legal analyses of torture and other ill-treatment often overlook how gender shapes both the method and impact of torture and other ill-treatment, leading to gaps in recognition, documentation, and accountability.
Methods: The article adopts a legal-analytical methodology grounded in international criminal, human rights, and humanitarian law. It first evaluates the legal framework on torture through a gender-competent lens to surface how the legal elements of torture may be perpetrated and experienced along gendered identities and modes of power. It applies this gender-competent lens to factual findings from United Nations investigative bodies and human rights organisations detailing the types and modes of harm experienced by Palestinians in Gaza post-7 October 2023. This analysis focuses on three domains where gendered torture and ill-treatment have been most evident: arrest and detention, technology-facilitated abuse, and reproductive violence. Each domain is assessed for patterns of torture and ill-treatment that exploit culturally and socially defined gender roles.
Results: The findings demonstrate that Palestinian men and boys have been systematically emasculated through forced nudity, sexual violence, and digitally broadcast humiliation. Women and girls have been sexualized, exposed, and denied basic reproductive dignity through invasive searches, lack of menstrual hygiene, and the collapse of maternity care.
Discussion: These practices amount to torture and other ill-treatment under international law, not merely because of their physical or psychological severity, but because they are deliberately gendered in design and effect. A gender-competent application of torture law is essential to capture the full scope of harm experienced by Palestinians in Gaza. The article calls for legal frameworks and accountability mechanisms to incorporate gender not as a modifier, but as a core analytic of torture itself.
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