Israel has for decades carried out a “reproductive genocide” of the Palestinian people, obliterating medical institutions, executing women and children and degrading the lived environment to such a point that it results in infertility, a new report says.

This practice, the Palestinian Feminist Collective report contends, has accelerated since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began following the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023, with the intention of making it impossible for Palestinian life to continue, Middle East Eye reported on Wednesday.

Last week, the UN’s top investigative body on Palestine and Israel concluded that Israeli forces had deliberately targeted Palestinian children as a central element of their assault on Gaza.

The UN’s report examined the full scope of harm inflicted on children, from precision shootings by snipers and drones, to torture in detention, reproductive violence and the destruction of schools and hospitals.

Israel has killed more than 21,000 Palestinian children since October 2023, with a further 5,160 children estimated to be buried under rubble, according to the UN report. As of October 2024, at least 15,000 children had lost their mothers.

Energy minister vows ‘100 percent’ control over Gaza

Meanwhile, Israel’s energy and infrastructure minister says Israel will continue expanding its control over the Gaza Strip until it reaches “100 percent”.

Speaking to Galei Israel radio, Eli Cohen said Israel could not allow Hamas “to raise its head even by a millimeter”.

Cohen said Israel controlled 53 percent of Gaza two months ago, about 60 percent one month ago and “close to 70 percent” today, MEE said.

He added that Israel’s control over the enclave “will only continue to grow”.

Israeli forces have also arrested at least 20 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, since Tuesday evening, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.

The society said Israel has sharply escalated arrests and field interrogations since the start of the Gaza genocide in October 2023, targeting different sections of Palestinian society as part of a policy of collective punishment and revenge.

It said Palestinian women face growing targeting through arrest campaigns, including detentions used as hostage-taking, night raids on homes and harsh interrogation methods.

The group also said Israeli forces have increasingly arrested women. It said the number of Palestinian women held in Israeli prisons has risen to 99.

The number of Palestinian journalists held in Israeli prisons has also risen to 42, including two who have been subjected to enforced disappearance, the group said.

Israeli settler group calls for seizing crops in occupied Syrian land

An Israeli settler group has called for the cultivation and sale of crops from occupied Syrian land.

The Pioneers of Bashan, a group that advocates Israeli settlement in Syria, called for the exploitation of territory captured by Israel in the governorates of Daraa and Quneitra.

"In the small Quneitra District alone, about 2,000 tons of wheat were harvested this year!" the group said on X, referring to crop yield.

"When this fertile land is worked by pioneering Jews, instead of Hamas-supporting Sunnis, it will yield even more."

The Pioneers of Bashan were founded in April 2025, a few months after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's government in December 2024.

Assad's fall at the hands of armed opposition groups led by current President Ahmed al-Sharaa prompted Israel to expand its occupation of Syrian territory.

Israel has controlled the Golan Heights since the 1967 war.

Settler groups like the Pioneers of Bashan have advocated the settlement of further Syrian territory, often citing Biblical texts as justification.

On Sunday, Israeli forces pushed into the village of Abidin in Daraa, even as residents trying to block the road with stones to stop them.

Israeli forces later responded with artillery fire, prompting residents to flee to nearby villages overnight, according to state media.

************caption