ABSTRACT:
The Israeli occupation policies following October 7, 2023, have drawn unprecedented attention to the systematic targeting of reproductive health and women's rights in the Gaza Strip. Reports by UN agencies, international human rights organizations, and medical professionals document a catastrophic deterioration in reproductive health services, which some researchers and activists have described as "reproductive genocide." Therefore, the key question is:"How can Israeli practices targeting the reproductive capacity of Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip be analyzed through the lenses of biopolitics, extreme biopolitics, and necropolitics, and to what extent do these practices constitute genocide under international law?" The 1948 Genocide Convention classifies genocide as a distinct crime, defining it as acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group. These include murder, causing serious bodily or mental harm, imposing cruel, inhuman, or degrading living conditions, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children. This definition is incorporated into Article 6 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which criminalizes measures aimed at preventing births within the group . This includes the undermining of its biological viability. In Gaza, Israeli actions include the destruction of reproductive health infrastructure, the denial of medical supplies to women, widespread malnutrition among pregnant women, and psychological trauma that increases rates of miscarriage and premature birth. This research is based on a socio-legal health approach that combines a doctrinal analysis of laws, treaties, and case law with a contextual analysis of reports and public health data on reproductive violence in Gaza. The importance of this research reveals the tactics by which conflicts exploit women's reproductive health to destroy future generations, calling for urgent public health interventions to protect women's reproductive rights and ensure the future of affected communities.