The United Nations has placed Israel on a blacklist of countries suspected of committing sexual violence against civilians, prompting Israel’s foreign ministry to announce it would sever all ties with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The listing appears in a report on “conflict-related sexual violence” released on Friday, which also includes Russia among new additions.
Last August, the UN cited “credible information” about sexual violence by Israeli security forces against Palestinian detainees in prisons and other detention facilities, adding that inspectors had been denied access.
“We invited the representative of the UN to come to Israel to check those ridiculous allegations. They chose not to come,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon posted on X on Thursday.
Pramila Patten, the UN official who prepared the report, told reporters in New York: “I never received an iota of information on measures taken by the government of Israel on implementation of the preventive measures.”
She said she had made several written requests for details about initial steps but received no response on the substantive aspect of preventive measures. Patten acknowledged Israel had extended an invitation, but disagreements over the visit’s scope and access, combined with Israel’s war on Gaza, led to its suspension.
The report states that in 2025, “the United Nations verified multiple incidents of conflict-related sexual violence, including as a form of torture, inflicted against 14 men, seven women, nine boys and one girl from the Gaza Strip and the [occupied] West Bank.”
Violations included rape with objects, gang rape, attempted rape, genital violence, targeted shooting of genitals, strip and cavity searches without security justification, forced nudity, and threats of rape, the report said.
“Rape and gang rape, in some cases repeated, were perpetrated against nine victims, the majority Palestinians from Gaza,” it added, noting that Israeli armed and security forces were among the perpetrators. Survivors included journalists and human rights defenders. In some cases, violations were filmed or photographed.
Five male victims suffered severe rectal bleeding or swelling for days or weeks as a result.
The report also includes horrific accounts of abuses by Russia’s military. The UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine has verified 310 cases of conflict-related sexual violence by Russian forces, including rape, gang rape, genital mutilation, electric shocks, and beatings to the genitals, affecting 280 men, 26 women, and four girls.
The report’s annex lists 77 parties deemed responsible for patterns of conflict-related sexual violence, including 62 non-state actors. Nearly 10,000 cases were recorded worldwide last year — more than double the previous year’s figure.
Inclusion on the list does not automatically carry punitive measures such as sanctions, though public naming can cause significant reputational damage, and repeat offenders are barred from UN peacekeeping operations.
Patten called the rise in verified cases a “very disturbing trend” that remains only the “very tip of the iceberg.”
“This number can be attributed to the fact that we are going through a time when we have a record number of extremely violent conflicts, and the fact that perpetrators are feeling emboldened by a context of impunity, where this crime is almost cost-free,” she said.
