Israeli and Russian forces added to UN blacklist for sexual violence in conflict zones

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

UNITED NATIONS — An annual United Nations report documenting sexual violence in conflicts worldwide has included Israeli forces for the first time since the review began more than 15 years ago for their treatment of Palestinian detainees. Israel denies the accusations.

The 35-page report — shared by the Israeli mission to the UN late Thursday ahead of its expected release Friday — blacklists 77 government and non-government parties in a dozen countries suspected of committing or being responsible for sexual violence in conflicts around the world. It says the number of cases rose sharply in 2025 from 2024.

Russian armed and security forces were also blacklisted for the first time this year for sexual violence against prisoners of war and civilians detained during the war in Ukraine.

The list for 2025 includes Israel’s armed and security forces as well as Hamas militants, who were previously blacklisted after their attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.

Both Israel and Russia were warned in last year’s report by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that they could be put on the list.

The ambassadors of both countries expressed outrage at their inclusion and lashed out at Guterres.

“We will write a letter to the secretary-general saying that these are unsubstantiated lies and alleged things which again portray Russia as a villain, like they do all the time,” Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said. He said Russia is documenting and preparing a report on how the Ukrainians are treating Russian prisoners of war.

“We are done with this UN Secretary-General,” Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, said in a statement on social media. “Guterres has put Israel on the same blacklist along with Hamas, ISIS and the most depraved terrorist organizations in the world.” Guterres’ second five-year term ends Dec. 31.

Danon said Israel had provided documents, data and detailed responses to the allegations that are raised in the report.

The report said in 2025 the UN was able to document “patterns of sexual violence” against Palestinians detained in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, and verified multiple incidents of conflict-related sexual violence, including as a form of torture, inflicted on 14 men, seven women, nine boys and one girl from Gaza and the West Bank. It said 13 cases occurred in 2025 and 18 in 2023 and 2024.

“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 stated.

It detailed at least nine victims, mostly from Gaza, who were raped or gang raped, in some cases repeatedly, by perpetrators from the Israel Defense Forces and Israel’s prison service, its special forces and police units.

Israel’s foreign ministry said Thursday it has “comprehensively, thoroughly, and unequivocally refuted these allegations.”

“This decision is yet another example of the UN’s long-standing, institutionalized hostility toward Israel,” the foreign ministry wrote on X.

The report again includes accusations of sexual violence by Hamas, but says many of the details could not be independently confirmed because the Israeli government continues to deny the U.N. the access it needs to carry out investigations.

Russian authorities also consistently deny access to U.N. human rights investigators, the report said, but they still were able to verify 310 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in Russia and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine against prisoners of war and civilian detainees. The vast majority of the victims were men, the report said.

Human rights monitors in Ukraine documented 31 cases of conflict-related sexual violence against prisoners of war and civilian detainees, the majority of which occurred prior to 2025, the report said. Ukraine has not been put on the U.N. blacklist.

Farnoush Amiri And Edith M. Lederer, The Associated Press