A United Nations report has raised serious allegations of sexual violence by Israeli soldiers and other security personnel against Palestinians.
The abuses detailed in the as-yet unpublished report by UN Secretary General António Guterres include rape, rape with objects, gang rape, attempted rape, violence targeting the genitals and shootings directed at victims' genitals.
The allegations were made in the UN's annual report on conflict-related sexual violence, which includes Israel among the parties listed, and has been seen by dpa.
Israel's Foreign Ministry vehemently rejected the allegations, describing them as baseless and lacking factual foundation. It called the report "shameful and absurd," accusing the United Nations of attempting to create "a fake symmetry between Israel and the real sexual atrocities committed by Hamas."
Witnesses to the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023, reported rapes, while hostages abducted to Gaza also described sexual violence. The United Nations has previously assessed those allegations as credible.
In this report, the United Nations said it had verified several cases of conflict-related sexual violence in 2025 in the Palestinian territories.
The victims included 14 men, seven women, nine boys and one girl from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the UN said.
The report also said rapes and gang rapes, in some cases repeated, were committed against nine victims, the majority of whom were from the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry has accused the UN of "long-standing, institutionalized hostility toward Israel," and accused Guterres of covering up the fact that UN staff were also involved in the terrorist attack in Israel more than two and a half years ago. The UN says nine accused individuals were dismissed at that time.
Israel's UN mission in New York said it was severing contact with Guterres.
"We're done with this Secretary-General!" Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, wrote on X on Thursday.
In a separate post, the mission said Danon had challenged what it described as "lies" and a political campaign against Israel.
"At the end of the conversation, Ambassador Danon informed him in a clear and unequivocal manner that we are done with UN Secretary-General Guterres."
