A UN-mandated commission of inquiry has accused Israeli forces of crimes against humanity that include rape and torture, in a report that lands almost six months after Benjamin Netanyahu promised to sue the New York Times for publishing allegations of exactly that. Haaretz reported that the report, released on Monday 26 October, accused Israeli forces for the first time of crimes against humanity against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in its report that torture, reproductive violence, rape and other sexual violence form part of the broader attack on the civilian population in the West Bank.

The commission said it had verified four additional cases of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees since its March 2025 report, two of them involving victims from the West Bank. The cases included alleged gang rape, genital violence, forced nudity and threats of sexual violence. Its chair, Srinivasan Muralidhar, pointed to an increase in sexual violence, including forced nudity, cavity searches and degrading treatment of Palestinian prisoners.

The commission also found that, in Gaza, Israeli authorities and forces continue to commit genocidal acts despite the ceasefire. Israel's Foreign Ministry called the report a propaganda document detached from reality. The Jerusalem Post noted that Israel has previously rejected the commission's findings on sexual violence as unfounded and disputed its verification methods.

The report follows a separate UN finding in the summer. As we reported in May 2026, Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar had ordered a defamation case over Nicholas Kristof's column on the abuse of Palestinian detainees. Since then, the UN Secretary-General's annual report on conflict-related sexual violence has listed Israeli forces for the first time. AP reported that the list included Israel's armed and security forces for their treatment of Palestinian detainees, and that Israel denies the accusations.

The Secretary-General's report said that patterns of sexual violence against Palestinians detained in Israel and the occupied territory continued to be documented in 2025. It also said that explicit threats from Israeli forces coerced detainees into not reporting abuse.

The UN had verified thirteen instances of sexual violence by Israel's armed forces in 2025, and the verified cases were indicative rather than comprehensive because Israel continues to deny access to detention settings. Israel's UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said Israel was breaking all contact with Guterres over the decision.

The UN report also addressed the Sde Teiman case. It stated that all charges against the soldiers were dropped in March 2026, which the UN warned could further entrench impunity. The IDF said it dropped the charges against the five soldiers accused of raping a Palestinian detainee because their right to a fair trial had been breached.

The lawsuit against the Times has gone quiet. When the threat was made, the Prime Minister's Office said that it was not immediately clear where or whether a complaint had been filed. Two weeks later, the Times of Israel reported little indication that legal action was moving forward, and noted that a suit could bring new evidence of abuse to light if Israel were ordered to produce records. First Amendment scholar Rodney Smolla told CBS that a government itself cannot sue for defamation in the United States. Netanyahu had made a similar threat in August 2025 over the Times's reporting on starvation in Gaza, and Israel never did sue the Times in that matter. We found no report of a complaint being filed over the Kristof column.

The Times has not backed down. Its spokesperson called the threatened suit without merit and part of a well-worn political playbook, and opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury declared on 21 May that the paper stood by the column.

Pressure on the paper has instead come from another quarter. On 23 September, the state of Florida filed a shareholder lawsuit in a Manhattan state court over the Times's coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Bloomberg Law reported that the plaintiffs first asked the Times for documents in May, in response to the Kristof column.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said the state was not suing over a specific article but over corporate governance. He also said the Times had retracted the column, but there are no reports of the paper having done that. The Times said the suit has no merit and was brought for an improper purpose.

Israel still bars the monitors who could settle the question. The UN Secretary-General's report noted he urged Israel to investigate and prosecute all allegations of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees, and AP reported that Israel denies the accusations.