UN chief warns Israel over credible reports of sexual abuse against Palestinian detainees - War on Gaza
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a letter to Ambassador Danny Danon that he is 'gravely concerned' about reported violations against Palestinians by Israeli military and security forces in several prisons, a detention center and a military base.
Guterres said he was putting Israeli forces on notice that they could be listed as abusers in his next report on sexual violence in conflict 'due to significant concerns of patterns of certain forms of sexual violence that have been consistently documented by the United Nations.'
Danon, who circulated the letter and his response Tuesday, said the allegations 'are steeped in biased publications.'
Because Israel has denied access to U.N. monitors, it has been 'challenging to make a definitive determination' about patterns, trends and the systematic use of sexual violence by its forces, Guterres said in the letter.
He urged Israel's government 'to take the necessary measures to ensure immediate cessation of all acts of sexual violence, and make and implement specific time-bound commitments.'
The secretary-general said these should include investigations of credible allegations, clear orders and codes of conduct for military and security forces that prohibit sexual violence, and unimpeded access for U.N. monitors.
In March, U.N.-backed human rights experts accused Israel of 'the systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other gender-based violence.'
The Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory said it documented a range of violations perpetrated against Palestinian women, men, girls and boys and accused Israeli security forces of rape and sexual violence against Palestinian detainees.
At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the U.N. Human Rights Council, which commissioned the team of independent experts, as an 'anti-Israel circus'. His statement did not address the findings themselves.
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