NOTICE: This news article contains descriptions of sexual violence.
TEL AVIV—United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has placed Israel’s armed forces on his blacklist of countries and entities accused of sexual violence in war zones, citing abuse of Palestinian inmates.
The 2026 edition of the Secretary-General’s Report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, which covers the year 2025, said the UN had verified 13 instances of sexual violence against Palestinians by Israel’s armed forces in 2025, in addition to 18 cases in 2023 and 2024. The victims included 14 men, seven women, nine boys, and one girl, all from occupied Gaza or the West Bank.
Alleged violators included the Israel Defense Forces, the Israel Prison Service, and the Israeli police, according to the UN report, which claimed violations were recorded in prisons, occupied West Bank checkpoints, and the Gush Etzion police station, as well as during military operations.
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.
“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 said.
The sexual violence against female detainees “included mostly threats of rape, forced nudity, unwanted touching, and humiliating or degrading strip searches without justification,” while male detainees were targeted more severely with “rape, attempted rape, and violence to the genitals, resulting in five male victims suffering severe rectal bleeding or swelling…in some cases, without receiving medical treatment.”
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.
According to Hadash / Israeli Communist Party Member of the Knesset Ofer Cassif, “The inclusion of Israel in the UN Blacklist of Sexual Violence in Conflict Zone is sadly not a surprise.”
He said that those “who chose to close their eyes in the face of countless testimonies must now witness the wickedness and depravity the Israeli government has institutionalized and sowed deep into the society.
“I have personally attempted to shed light on these crimes in the Knesset, only to be silenced, censored, and expelled.”
But recognizing the fault is only the first step, Cassif said, “accountability must now follow. The Israeli government has proven it is unable and unwilling to correct its ways, so the international community must step in and act—first and foremost to bring justice for the Palestinian victims, but also to cure Israel itself from this horrendous evil.”
Zo Haderekh
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