According to Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, Israel is now on the blacklist alongside Hamas and ISIS. Danon also said Israel had transferred evidence to the UN in an attempt to refute its claims, describing the addition as a ‘blood libel’
By Liza Rozovsky, reposted from Haaretz, May 28, 2026
The United Nations added Israel to the blacklist of countries that commit sexual violence in conflict zones, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations announced on Thursday.
Ambassador Danny Danon described it as “blood libel” and a “political decision,” and wrote on X that Israel has been added to the blacklist “alongside the world’s most brutal terrorist organisations – Hamas and ISIS.”
In August, the annual report on conflict-related sexual violence submitted to the UN Security Council included Hamas, for the first time, on its blacklist of countries and organizations that are “credibly suspected” of responsibility for repeated patterns or forms of sexual violence in areas of conflict.
In addition, UN Secretary General António Guterres put Israel on notice that it might be included on the list in the 2026 annual report if it doesn’t take a series of steps.
“I urge the Government of Israel to release Palestinians who were arbitrarily detained, ensure that Palestinian prisoners are released in a dignified way, investigate and prosecute all allegations of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees, ensure humane treatment for all those held and implement prevention measures, including granting unhindered humanitarian access to detention facilities.”
Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon said that Israel had provided evidence, documents and detailed responses to each of the United Nations’ claims. “We invited UN representatives to come to the field and examine things closely, and of course, they chose not to do so.”
In January 2025, it was reported that Israel was preventing Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, from carrying out a comprehensive examination of war crimes committed by Hamas on October 7, because it would have required Israel to also allow the UN to investigate sexual violence against Palestinians being held in Israel.
As a condition to an examination of Hamas’ crimes, Patten had demanded that her staff be given access to the Israeli detention facilities where Palestinians are being held so they could also look into allegations that soldiers sexually assaulted them. Israel, however, refused.
Danon’s announcement comes after the New York Times published a column by Nicholas Kristof detailing sexual violence by Israeli armed forces and settlers against Palestinians.
Israel accused the NYT of spreading “one of the worst blood libels” in modern media history and was part of an “orchestrated anti-Israel campaign.”
Regarding one of the most contentious claims – that Israeli forces allegedly trained combat dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners on the command of their handlers – Kristof said that “other Palestinian prisoners and human rights monitors have cited reports of dogs sexually assaulting prisoners,” adding that “The Pinochet regime in Chile used a dog to rape political prisoners. Peer-reviewed medical literature documents rectal injuries caused by canine penetration.”
The testimony in the article was based on a report published last month by an organization called Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which is based in Geneva, as well as interviews conducted by Kristof himself. The organization, founded about 15 years ago, deals with human rights violations in the Middle East, including in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, but focuses on Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
The newspaper noted that Israeli media outlets had reported abuse by security forces and settlers against Palestinians, including a Haaretz report from March about settlers sexually assaulting a Palestinian man in front of his family in the northern Jordan Valley. It also said that human rights organizations had documented similar cases.
In March, Israeli’s Military Advocate General Itay Offir announced that he had ordered the indictment in the Sde Teiman abuse case against a Gaza detainee to be dropped, due to “the conduct of senior officials in the Military Advocate General’s Corps and the IDF’s law enforcement system in this case, and its exceptional and unprecedented circumstances.”
According to the indictment, the five beat the detainee, dragged him along the floor, stepped on his body, and shocked him with a taser. The alleged assault resulted in broken ribs and a punctured lung. The charges also state that one of the soldiers stabbed the detainee in the buttocks, causing rectal injury.
Prof. Yoel Donchin, a leading Israeli physician who served as a medical officer at Sde Teiman and treated the detainee at the center of the case, told Haaretz in 2024: “He arrived, and we saw he had a stab wound in the rectum. We called the military police, but they told us that they were already investigating.”
IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir approved the return to reserve duty of soldiers accused of abusing a Gazan detainee in April, following the dismissal of the indictment against them. However, an investigation into their conduct was not completed, and its findings were supposed to determine whether they could be returned to service.
Liza Rozovsky is a culture reporter known for her work on contemporary Russian culture and the experiences of former Soviet immigrants in Israel, often addressing themes of alienation and political oppression. She has contributed articles to various publications, including Haaretz and the Forward
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