The United Nations has added Israeli and Russian forces to its annual blacklist of parties credibly suspected of committing conflict-related sexual violence, placing both countries alongside dozens of governments and armed groups accused of using rape and other forms of sexual violence during armed conflicts.
The designation appeared in the UN secretary-general’s 2026 report on conflict-related sexual violence, which documents verified allegations of rape, sexual torture, forced nudity, genital violence, and other abuses committed in conflict zones around the world.
The report added Israeli and Russian forces to the blacklist for the first time, citing verified allegations connected to the wars in Palestine and Ukraine.
The blacklist identifies parties that the UN has determined are credibly suspected of patterns of conflict-related sexual violence. Inclusion does not create criminal liability or automatically trigger sanctions, though it carries significant diplomatic and reputational consequences and subjects listed parties to increased UN monitoring and reporting requirements.
Why Israel Was Added
The UN verified multiple incidents of conflict-related sexual violence against Palestinians between 2023 and 2025 as reasoning for Israel’s inclusion, according to the report.
The report documented allegations including rape, gang rape, sexual torture, genital violence, forced nudity, threats of rape, and invasive body searches. UN investigators stated that the verified cases likely represent only a portion of actual incidents because investigators faced restrictions on access to Palestine and certain detention facilities.
The report attributed allegations to personnel from the Israel Defense Forces, the Israel Prison Service, and Israeli police units. Some verified incidents involved detainees allegedly subjected to sexual violence during detention and interrogation, according to the UN.
The findings build on a March 2025 report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, which concluded that Israeli detention practices involved widespread sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians—finding that some abuses appeared to be used as methods of coercion, punishment and intimidation.
Israeli officials rejected the findings. Danny Danon, the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, argued that placing Israeli forces on the same list as Hamas represented a moral failure by the organization.
Why Russia Was Added
The report also added Russian armed forces and security services to the blacklist for conflict-related sexual violence committed during the war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022 and has drawn out as a relative stalemate since.
According to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, investigators verified 310 cases of conflict-related sexual violence attributed to Russian personnel. The report documented allegations including rape, gang rape, genital mutilation, electric shocks directed at genitals, and other forms of torture committed against prisoners of war and detained civilians.
The UN reported that verified victims included 280 men, 26 women and four girls. Many documented cases involved detainees held in areas occupied by Russian forces or individuals held in Russian detention facilities.
Russia has repeatedly denied allegations that its forces engage in systematic war crimes or sexual violence in Ukraine.
Who Else Appears on the List
The secretary-general’s report identifies 77 government and non-government parties credibly suspected of committing patterns of conflict-related sexual violence.
The list includes Hamas, which the UN previously added after determining there were reasonable grounds to believe conflict-related sexual violence occurred during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, and during the captivity of some hostages in Gaza.
Other listed parties include the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, numerous armed groups operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, armed factions in South Sudan, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, and multiple armed groups operating in Myanmar and the Central African Republic.
The report states that nearly 10,000 cases of conflict-related sexual violence were recorded worldwide in 2025—more than double the number documented the previous year. UN officials warned that the true number is likely substantially higher because many victims never report sexual violence or lack access to investigative mechanisms capable of documenting abuses.
