Overview
- On Thursday, May 28, the UN secretary-general’s annual report and its annex confirmed that Israeli armed and security forces and the Israel Prison Service were added to the list of parties credibly suspected of conflict‑related sexual violence.
- Israel immediately announced it would freeze ties with António Guterres’s office, rejected the findings as politically motivated and said it had provided documents and invited UN investigators to inspect sites.
- UN investigators said they verified multiple incidents in 2025, including rape, forced nudity and physical violence to the genitals, and said limited access to detention facilities and other sites constrained on‑the‑ground probes.
- Responses from other governments and officials were split, with UN specialists defending the methodology while the U.S. envoy and several Israeli allies criticized the decision as equating Israel with terrorist groups.
- The blacklist carries reputational costs and potential practical limits on UN roles for listed parties but does not itself impose automatic sanctions, and the listing focuses attention on gaps in accountability for victims and detainees.