A prisoner advocacy group has called for holding Israel accountable for “systematic” sexual violence and torture against Palestinian prisoners.
“Israeli crimes against Palestinians, including violations against thousands of prisoners, necessitate holding Israeli officials accountable and prosecuting them before competent international courts,” the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a statement.
A report by the office of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that it had last year verified 31 cases of sexual violence perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians from Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
It said 13 of the cases had occurred in 2025, and 18 in the two years prior.
The report said the violations included rape, gang rape, forced nudity, and threats of rape.
The Palestinian group welcomed the UN report, saying it reflects “growing international recognition” of the scale of the Israeli violations committed against Palestinians.
The crimes of sexual violence “are no longer documented as individual or exceptional violations, but rather as policies and tools of repression and collective punishment systematically practiced by the occupation institutions,” it added.
