UN adds Israel to conflict-related sexual violence blacklist: What you need to know

NEW YORK – 30 May 2026: The United Nations on Friday added Israel to a blacklist for committing sexual violence in conflict, prompting Israel to announce it would sever contact with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ office.

The move follows Guterres’ annual report to the UN Security Council on conflict-related sexual violence, which went further than last year when Israel was placed on a “notice” list warning it could be added if credible allegations persisted.

The list contains parties “credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence.”

The latest report includes detailed accounts of abuses involving Israeli military and security forces.

‘Rape, Gang Rape’

This year’s report said that in 2025, the United Nations “verified multiple incidents of conflict-related sexual violence, including as a form of torture, inflicted against 14 men, 7 women, 9 boys and 1 girl from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”

It says 13 of these cases occurred in 2025 and 18 in 2023 and 2024, years during which Israel has waged an unrelenting war in Gaza that has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians and injured over 170,000 others, according to Gaza's health ministry.

“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.”

It added that “rape and gang rape, in some cases repeated, were perpetrated against nine victims, the majority from Gaza.”

“Perpetrators included Israeli armed and security forces, namely the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Prison Service, including the Keter special forces, and the Police Counter-Terrorism Unit (Yamam).”

“These violations occurred primarily during detention and interrogation and across several sites, including military camps,” the report added.

‘Violations Filmed, Photographed’

The report stresses that survivors included journalists and human rights defenders and that “most cases involved multiple forms of sexual violence used simultaneously and, in some cases, the violations were filmed or photographed, including one case of rape.”

For female detainees, sexual violence “included mostly threats of rape, forced nudity, unwanted touching, and humiliating or degrading strip searches without justification.”

Meanwhile, “men and boys were targeted with rape, attempted rape and violence to the genitals, resulting in five male victims suffering severe rectal bleeding or swelling for multiple days or weeks and, in some cases, without receiving medical treatment.”

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said the Israeli mission would have “no further contact” with the office of Guterres, whose term ends this year, for as long as he remains in post.