United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned Israel about potentially listing the country’s armed forces in an upcoming UN report on sexual violence, according to the spokesperson for Israel’s mission to the UN.
“I am putting Israeli armed and security forces on notice for potential listing in the next reporting cycle, due to significant concerns of patterns of certain forms of sexual violence that have been consistently documented by the United Nations,” Guterres wrote in the letter sent to Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, on Monday.
The UN’s Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict publishes an annual report titled Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, in which it documents sexual violence committed in armed conflict.
Guterres’ letter to Danon, which was shared by Israel’s mission to the UN, said the UN is concerned about “credible information of violations by Israeli armed and security forces, perpetrated against Palestinians in several prisons, a detention center and military base.”
“Due to consistent denial of access to United Nations monitors,” the letter said, “it has been challenging to make a definitive determination regarding patterns, trends and systematicity of sexual violence in these situations.”
Guterres urged Israel to take “necessary measures to ensure immediate cessation of all acts of sexual violence.”
A 2024 report by leading Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said that sexual violence was repeatedly carried out by soldiers or prison guards against Palestinian detainees.
The IDF repeatedly rejected allegations of systematic abuse.
Israel runs several prison facilities that hold Palestinians, including Sde Teiman and Ketziot Prison in the country’s Negev desert, Megiddo and Gilboa near the West Bank, Etzion in Jerusalem, and more.
Last summer, Israel transferred hundreds of Palestinian detainees out of Sde Teiman following a petition from human rights groups – which drew heavily on CNN reporting about the makeshift prison – for it to be shut down. In September, the High Court of Justice warned the prison must abide by the law, but did not order the government to shut it down.
Responding to the letter on Tuesday, Danon said the “Secretary-General chooses once again to adopt as their word baseless accusations, which are steeped in biased publications,” urging the UN to focus on sexual violence committed by Hamas.
In March, a UN commission found that Israel had “increasingly employed sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence” against Palestinians “as part of a broader effort to undermine their right to self-determination.” It also accused Israel of carrying out “genocidal acts through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities.”
Israel’s mission to the UN in Geneva strongly rejected the statement at the time, calling it a “shameless attempt to incriminate” the Israeli military.
Last year, a UN team also found “clear and convincing” information that hostages in Gaza were sexually abused and there are “reasonable grounds” to believe the sexual violence was ongoing there.
Pramila Patten, the UN special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, said the team had found “reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence, including rape and gang rape occurred” during Hamas’ October 7 terror attack in Israel. It amounted to the UN’s most definitive finding on allegations of sexual assault in the aftermath of the attack.
CNN’s Catherine Nicholls contributed reporting.
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