The UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict on Monday rejected an accusation by Israel that the United Nations attempted to suppress a report showing that members of the Palestinian Hamas movement had committed sexual violence against Israelis during the October 7 massacre.
"I must be clear and categorical. There has been no attempt by the [UN] Secretary General [António Guterres] to silence my report or suppress his findings," Pramila Patten told the UN Security Council in New York on Monday.
"On the contrary, I received his full support, politically, logistically and financially and he also gave clear instructions for the public release of my report, and its immediate transmission to the Security Council."
Patten was responding to the accusation made by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who was also present at the meeting of the most powerful UN body.
A week ago, on the day of the publication of the report, Katz accused the UN of wanting to "sweep Hamas' crimes under the carpet."
In the report, the UN classifies the Israeli allegations of sexualized violence during the massacre by Hamas terrorists on October 7 as credible. There are "reasonable grounds to believe" that rapes and gang rapes had taken place in at least three locations during the attacks.
There was also convincing information that sexualized violence had been committed against kidnapped hostages and that this could continue while they are held in captivity in the Gaza Strip, the report said.
The report was released five months after the worst massacre in Israel's history, when terrorists from Hamas and other extremist Palestinian organizations killed 1,200 in Israel on October 7, triggering the Gaza conflict.