Israel has strongly condemned a United Nations report accusing it of using sexual violence as a weapon of war and attacking women’s reproductive health in Gaza, calling the allegations a modern-day blood libel—a reference to historic antisemitic conspiracy theories.
“This is one of the worst cases of blood libel the world has ever seen,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated, arguing that Hamas, not Israel, is responsible for horrific sexual violence. “It is indeed a sick document that only an antisemitic organization such as the UN could produce.”
Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron, echoed this sentiment, calling the report “another example of the blood libel perpetuated against Israel.” He criticized the UN for shifting focus away from Hamas’s war crimes and the atrocities committed on October 7.
The Israeli mission to the UN also denounced the Commission of Inquiry behind the report, accusing it of using uncorroborated second-hand sources that fail to meet UN verification standards.
Cochav Elkayam-Levy, who leads an independent commission documenting Hamas’s sexual violence during the October 7 attacks, condemned the report’s attempt to create a false equivalence between Israel and Hamas.
“This moral comparison is painful and wrong,” she said. “It distorts history and harms both the victims and justice itself.”
Israel has urged the UN to explicitly condemn Hamas and acknowledge the sexual violence committed against Israeli victims. Meanwhile, the controversy over the report further strains relations between Israel and international human rights institutions.
