UN chief puts Israel ‘on notice’ for sexual violence blacklist; Hamas to be added for first time

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has placed Israel “on notice” for possible inclusion in the UN’s “blacklist” of countries and groups credibly suspected of committing patterns of sexual violence in armed conflict.

The “blacklist” refers to the formal annex naming such parties in the UN’s annual Report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence. In the current draft of the 2025 report — seen by The Times of Israel and set to be published in the coming days — Israel is not listed in the annex, but Guterres cites “grave concern” in the main body of the document over allegations of sexual violence by Israeli security forces against Palestinians in multiple prisons, a detention facility, and a military base.

In a letter sent yesterday to Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, Guterres warns that Israel is on watch and could be included in next year’s annex. He writes that refusal to grant UN inspectors access has made verification difficult, but says there is “significant concern” over documented patterns of abuse.

The draft also places Hamas in the annex for the first time. The terror group was not blacklisted last year, with the UN citing insufficient evidence directly linking it to reported assaults and calling for further investigation. Hamas’s inclusion follows recently published reports documenting systematic sexual violence both during the October 7, 2023, massacre and against hostages in captivity.

In the letter to Danon, Guterres lists steps Israel must take to avoid blacklisting, including issuing directives against sexual violence, creating enforcement and disciplinary systems, investigating every credible complaint, securing commanders’ personal commitments, and granting the UN free access for monitoring and humanitarian aid.

Among the allegations cited by the UN — which include multiple accounts of the rape of Palestinian male detainees — is the reported assault of a detainee during his transfer to the Sde Teiman facilities, established after October 7 as a preliminary holding site for captured Hamas members and other suspected terrorists. Military police later arrested nine soldiers in connection with the incident, on charges including aggravated sodomy.

In a response to Guterres’ warning shared by his office, Danon rejects the allegations as “unfounded” and based on “biased publications,” demanding Israel’s removal from any consideration for listing, sanctions on Hamas for systematic sexual violence, and an amendment to the report to further reflect Hamas’s October 7 atrocities and what he calls the absence of evidence of a pattern of such crimes by Israeli forces.

A spokesperson for Danon tells The Times of Israel that blacklisting could prompt sanctions or other punitive measures, noting that other listed parties, which include ISIS and Al-Qaeda, have a years-long record of systematic sexual violence — a record they said was in no way comparable to Israel’s, making Guterres’ consideration “absurd” and “grave.”