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........

© The Times of Israel