U.N. official Pramila Patten undermined her own report on sexual violence in combat zones on Friday by admitting she didn’t independently verify allegations that Israel security entities committed such crimes.
“It’s not the responsibility of my office to do any verification,” said Patten, special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, in response to a question posed during a May 29 press conference.
“Did you get access to the evidence issued in this report?” the questioner asked.
“I don’t have to access. I mean, the information is verified with a very robust methodology of verification and documentation. I am a recipient. I compile that information and I present it to the secretary-general,” Patten said.
“Right, I just wondered if you viewed it with your own eyes,” the questioner continued.
“No, because this is not my job. And even throughout the engagement with the Permanent Mission [of Israel to the U.N.], I made it clear that I will not visit [Israeli] detention facilities even if they offered,” Patten said.
The U.N. report accused the Israel Defense Forces and parts of Israel’s security apparatus, including the Prison Service, of having committed such acts as part of “a pattern of sexual violence against Palestinians, including as a form of torture.”
According to the report, in 2025, the U.N. “verified” 31 cases by Israel, “primarily in detention settings, but also at checkpoints and during military operations against 14 men, seven women, nine boys and one girl from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”
Throwing the “verification” immediately in doubt was the inclusion of the Sde Teiman detention center as one of the facilities listed where violations were allegedly committed.
The most salacious piece of evidence in the ‘Sde Teiman Affair,’ purportedly proving Israeli prison guards inserted an object into the rectum of a Gazan prisoner, was a leaked video that showed little that was conclusive.
In April 2026, the IDF reservists accused of abusing the terrorist were returned to active duty after the indictments against them had been withdrawn.
A medical opinion found that evidence pointed to a self-inflicted wound as the area around the anus was not damaged, suggesting the prisoner himself had carefully inserted an object to later claim abuse.
The U.N. report, which covers January to December 2025, lumped Israel together with the Russian armed and security forces and three non-state actors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
It defined conflict-related sexual violence as “rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy,” along with other forms of sexual violence,
Israel formally severed all diplomatic contact with the office of U.N Secretary-General António Guterres on May 28 after learning it had been placed on the blacklist.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said last week that Jerusalem had submitted evidence and detailed responses to the allegations and had invited U.N. representatives to examine the situation on the ground, but they declined to do so.
At the same time that the report treated such allegations against Israel as verified, it cast doubt on testimonies of sexual abuse by Israelis held hostage by Hamas.
Israeli first lady Michal Herzog highlighted this point in condemning the report on May 29.
“As someone who has met with and seen the pain and suffering of the hostages who returned home from unbearable captivity in the dungeons of Gaza, I ask: How can one accept a one-sided report that begins with a paragraph claiming that their accounts of sexual violence cannot be verified?” she said. “If you cannot believe the victims at the start of your report, why should anyone believe the rest of it?”
In its section covering Israeli hostage testimony, the report said, “The United Nations was not able to verify any of these reports, given the continued denial of access by the Government of Israel to competent United Nations bodies to carry out investigations.”
