Israel rejects inclusion to the sexual violence blacklist
Foreign Ministry fumes over ‘shameful’ decision to place Israel on sexual violence blacklist as Hamas, accuse him of ‘exploiting his final months’ on job to fabricate accusations.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has placed Israel’s security forces on his blacklist of entities said to be credibly accused of sexual violence in war zones, citing alleged abuse of Palestinian inmates.
The Foreign Ministry said it cut ties with Guterres’s office over the “shameful and absurd” decision to put Israel on the same list as Hamas, which was added to the list last year.
Israel “will wait until a new UN Secretary-General is appointed” once Guterres’s ten-year term expires on December 31, the ministry said on X.
“Guterres is now exploiting his final months as Secretary-General to fabricate baseless accusations against Israel, completely devoid of any factual merit,” the ministry said. “Israel has comprehensively, thoroughly, and unequivocally refuted these allegations.”
The 2026 edition of the Secretary-General’s Report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, which covers the year 2025, said the UN had verified thirteen instances of sexual violence against Palestinians by Israel’s armed forces in 2025, in addition to eighteen cases in 2023 and 2024.
The victims were said to include 14 men, seven women, nine boys and one girl, all from Gaza or the West Bank.
“Violations consisted of rape, including with objects, gang rape, attempted rape, physical violence to the genitals, instances of targeted shooting of the genitals, touching of breasts and genitals, strip and cavity searches conducted without apparent security justification, forced nudity and threats of rape,” the report claimed.
The verified cases “should be seen as indicative of incidents and patterns over multiple reporting periods rather than comprehensive, given the continued denial of access by the Government of Israel to detention settings, as well as to Gaza,” the report added.
Alleged violators included the Israel Defense Forces, the Israel Prison Service and police, according to the UN report, which claimed violations were recorded in prisons, West Bank checkpoints and the Gush Etzion police station, as well as during military operations.
Though the UN Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, has “continued to engage with the Government of Israel and civil society,” Israel has failed to comply with demands in last year’s report for greater accountability and transparency, the UN chief said.
As an example of the alleged “systematic lack of accountability,” Guterres cited the case of a detainee at the military’s Sde Teiman facility who reportedly suffered severe rectal injuries following the “insertion of an object in the anus” by guards in July 2024.
Guterres noted that, despite “video and medical reports and a detailed description of the assault,” five reservists indicted in the case were not charged with rape, and the charges were dropped entirely earlier this year, after top army prosecutors admitted leaking the footage and lying about it.
‘Lost all moral authority’
Guterres’s report, dated April 21, was shared with The Times of Israel by a spokesperson for Danny Danon, the Israeli Ambassador to the UN.
Danon was informed of the decision in a Thursday letter from Guterres, which was also shared with The Times of Israel.
In a statement, Danon said whoever puts Israel on the same list as Hamas “has lost all moral authority.”
“The Secretary-General has once again chosen to conduct a political and false campaign against Israel,” Danon said. “We are done with this Secretary-General.”
In a phone interview with The Times of Israel earlier Thursday, Danon asserted Israel had done its utmost to comply with the steps Guterres outlined in last year’s report to stay off the blacklist.
Those steps included issuing directives against sexual violence, creating enforcement and disciplinary systems, investigating credible complaints and granting the UN free access for monitoring and humanitarian work.
Israel shared its full legal and oversight framework with the UN, including regulations, complaint mechanisms, and its practice of filing indictments where warranted, Danon said, adding that he personally held multiple meetings with Patten and her team.
According to Danon, Israel had also arranged for senior officials from the Prison Service, the military and the Justice Ministry to meet with Patten’s delegation, but she canceled trips to Israel due to technical issues and the security situation in the region, though Israel never blocked the visits.
The Secretary General never really gave us the basis” for the decision to put Israel on the blacklist… they never clarified any specific cases to us,” Danon claimed. “They don’t have any real basis to rely on. It could have been media reports or things like that.”
Channel 12 news reported Thursday that Israeli officials specifically pointed to an opinion piece by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof earlier this month that cited Palestinian accounts of sexual violence in Israeli custody.
Israel has slammed Kristof’s piece as “blood libel” and vowed to sue the New York Times.
Diplomatic sources cited by the network also claimed Guterres pushed to include Israel on this year’s blacklist over Patten’s objections.
Patten is the author of a 2024 UN report that found “clear and convincing” evidence that Hamas committed rape and sexual violence during the October 7 attack, and continued during the ensuing Gaza war to do so against hostages abducted in the onslaught.
Credit: Nava Freiberg, Times of Israel
