The UN has sharply pushed back on accusations made by Israel over its addition to the international body's war zone blacklist for committing sexual violence against Palestinians, saying Tel Aviv failed to provide any evidence that it has taken action to prevent assaults.
Pramila Patten, the UN official who authored the report that included Israel on the blacklist for the first time, told reporters on Friday that she spent the better part of the past year seeking information from Israel that it has adopted preventative measures against sexual violence after Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in August that Israel could be added.
"I never received an iota of information on measures taken by the government of Israel on implementation of the preventive measures," Patten said during a briefing at the UN's New York headquarters, referring to a letter Guterres sent to Israel on August 11.
"I have made several requests in writing, and sometimes during meetings, for details about initial steps, including the issuance of orders of command, information on access and information on accountability measures, but I did not get any response, any response on the substantive aspect of the preventive measures," she added.
In his letter, Guterres listed a series of steps Israel could take in line with UN Security Council resolutions and "stressed in that letter that while the implementation of these preventive measures will be taken into account in the consideration of listing, the primary factors are the immediate cessation of all acts of sexual violence and the unimpeded access for relevant UN entities, including to monitor compliance," Patten said.
Danny Danon, Israel's UN envoy, responded the following day, "rejecting both the notice of potential listing as well as the content of the report on 24th November 2025," Patten said.
During the following months, Israel only submitted "laws on paper, legal frameworks on detention, conditions of detention, and policies and directives from the Israeli prison service, Israeli defence, and Israeli police, but there was nothing on implementation."
"When information is provided on a handful of cases that had been investigated, that had gone through a preliminary investigation, but never reached even the level of a criminal investigation, because it was deemed that there was not sufficient evidence or that there was a lack of cooperation," she said.
"There's nothing concrete on accountability in that submission," she added.
Israel announced Thursday, ahead of the release of the conflict-related sexual violence report, that it is severing ties with Guterres' office. Danon, Israel's ambassador, said Tel Aviv "invited the representatives of the UN to come to Israel to check those ridiculous allegations. They chose not to come."
"I also made it clear from the outset that access to my office will not resolve the issue," she said.
