The UN sharply pushed back Friday on accusations made by Israel over its addition to the international body's war zone sexual violence blacklist, saying Tel Aviv failed to provide any evidence that it has taken action to prevent assaults.
Pramila Patten, the UN official who authored the report that included Israel on the blacklist for the first time, told reporters she spent the better part of the past year seeking information from Israel that it has adopted preventative measures against sexual violence after Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in August that Israel could be added.
"I never received an iota of information on measures taken by the government of Israel on implementation of the preventive measures," Patten said during a briefing at the UN's New York headquarters, referring to a letter Guterres sent to Israel on Aug. 11.
"I have made several requests in writing, and sometimes during meetings, for details about initial steps, including the issuance of orders of command information on access and information on accountability measures, but I did not get any response, any response on the substantive aspect of the preventive measures," she added.
In his letter, Guterres listed a series of steps Israel could take in line with UN Security Council resolutions and "stressed in that letter that while the implementation of these preventive measures will be taken into account in the consideration of listing, the primary factors are the immediate cessation of all acts of sexual violence and the unimpeded access for relevant UN entities, including to monitor compliance," Patten said.
Danny Danon, Israel's UN envoy, responded the following day, "rejecting both the notice of potential listing as well as the content of the report on 24th November 2025," Patten said.
During the following months, Israel only submitted "laws on paper, legal frameworks on detention, conditions of detention, and policies and directives from the Israeli prison service, Israeli defense, Israeli police, but it's nothing on implementation."
"When information is provided on a handful of cases that had been investigated, that had gone through a preliminary investigation, but never reached even the level of a criminal investigation, because it was deemed that there was not sufficient evidence, or that there was a lack of cooperation," she said.
"There's nothing concrete on accountability in that submission," she added.
Israel announced Thursday, ahead of the release of the conflict-related sexual violence report, that it is severing ties with Guterres' office. Danon, Israel's ambassador, said Tel Aviv "invited the representatives of the UN to come to Israel to check those ridiculous allegations. They chose not to come."
"I also made it clear from the outset that access to my office will not resolve the issue," she said.
Report tracks sharp rise in conflict-related sexual violence
The UN's 2025 Conflict-related sexual violence report found that sexual violence in war zones "rose sharply" from the previous year, "marked by extreme brutality, and overwhelmingly targeted women and girls."
In addition to Israel, Russia has been added to the blacklist this year, along with 75 other entities.
Regarding Israel, the UN verified 31 cases of conflict-related sexual violence being inflicted against Palestinians, including 14 men, 7 women, 9 boys, and 1 girl. All of the victims were from the occupied Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
In all, 13 cases occurred in 2025, while the 18 others transpired in 2023 and 2024.
Documented abuse included "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," according to the report.
Rape and gang rape were documented against nine victims, "the majority from Gaza," it added.
Israel's "systematic lack of accountability" for crimes committed against Palestinians helped to create a "climate of impunity that may enable the commission of conflict-related sexual violence," the report said.
