Israel Slams U.N. Response to Sexual Assault Report

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Israeli disputes with the United Nations, Chinese maritime clashes against the Philippines, and Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian ships.

U.N.-Israel Tensions Flare

Israel accused United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday of failing to adequately respond to a new U.N. report that found evidence of sexual violence committed during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

The report, released Monday, found “reasonable grounds” to believe that sexual violence occurred in at least three locations on Oct. 7: the Nova music festival site and its surrounding area, Route 232 highway, and Kibbutz Reim. Although the report noted that Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups claimed responsibility for the Oct. 7 attack, it did not attribute the sexual violence to any specific armed group, stating that the U.N. team behind the report had not been tasked with an investigative mission and that “[s]uch attribution would require a fully-fledged investigative process.” The report also detailed “clear and convincing information” that now-freed hostages experienced sexual violence, including rape, while in Hamas captivity in Gaza.

In addition, the report cited information that the U.N. team received from Palestinian authorities, civil society organizations, and direct interviews about sexual violence committed against Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli security forces and settlers. However, the team did not endeavor to gather evidence about or verify these allegations “in order not to duplicate the ongoing work of other UN entities” operating in the West Bank. The team did not visit Gaza.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz condemned Guterres for not immediately convening the U.N. Security Council to discuss the report’s findings and designate Hamas as a terrorist organization; however, according to U.N. bylaws, the secretary-general does not have the authority to convene the Security Council. Israel also recalled its ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, for consultations in protest of what Katz alleged was a concerted effort by Guterres to “forget the report and avoid making the necessary decisions.”

U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric rejected Israel’s accusations against Guterres, stating that “in no way, shape, or form did the secretary-general do anything to keep the report ‘quiet.’” Dujarric added that Israel’s “announcement accusing the secretary-general of trying to bury a report was made literally an hour, two hours, before a press conference presenting the report.”

The dispute between Israel and the U.N. secretary-general came one day after Israel accused the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) of employing 450 people who are “military operatives in terror groups in Gaza.” Israel did not provide names or evidence for its claims. Around 13,000 people work for the UNRWA in Gaza; the agency is the biggest provider of aid to the region, where roughly a quarter of the population is starving.

In response, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said Israel detained several agency staff members and forced them via torture and ill treatment into giving false confessions on alleged UNRWA ties to Hamas. This is part of a “deliberate and concerted campaign to undermine” UNRWA operations, he said at the U.N. General Assembly on Monday, adding that “attacks against UNRWA seek to eliminate its role in protecting the rights of Palestinian refugees and acting as a witness to their plight.”

In January, Israel accused 12 UNRWA staffers of participating in the Oct. 7 attack. Israel said seven individuals stormed Israeli territory, with one aiding a kidnapping and another helping to steal an Israeli soldier’s body. The U.N. fired nine of the suspects on Jan. 26 and launched an internal investigation on Jan. 29. Two of the accused are dead, and one is still in the process of being identified.

Following the January accusations, more than a dozen countries, including the United States, withdrew funding for the UNRWA. Around $450 million (or roughly half of the agency’s budget for the year) was suspended. Amnesty International condemned the international community’s response, arguing that “the alleged actions of a few individuals must not be used as a pretext for cutting off life-saving assistance in what could amount to collective punishment.”

Today’s Most Read

• Chinese Exceptionalism Just Won’t Die by Yasheng Huang
• The Big Lesson From the West’s Last Invasion of Russia by Theodore Bunzel
• The ‘Military Schengen’ Era Is Here by Anchal Vohra

What We’re Following

Maritime clashes. Chinese vessels blocked and then collided with Philippine coast guard ships off the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea on Tuesday, injuring four Philippine crew members. The Philippines accused China of trying to “illegally impede or obstruct a routine resupply and rotation mission.” It demanded China leave the maritime territory immediately and summoned a top Chinese diplomat to Manila, the Philippine capital, to protest Beijing’s “aggressive” actions. China accused the Philippines’ ships of illegally intruding into Chinese waters.

Both China and the Philippines lay claim to the Second Thomas Shoal. In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that Beijing’s territorial assertions in the shoal have no legal basis, a decision that China rejects. Since then, Beijing has repeatedly sought to demonstrate its presence around the Second Thomas Shoal as well as another contested shoal, heightening geopolitical tensions and making “global manufacturers nervous about friendshoring in the Philippines,” FP columnist Elisabeth Braw argued late last year.

Black Sea drone strike. Ukrainian officials announced on Tuesday that Kyiv had sunk a Russian warship near the Kerch Strait in an overnight sea drone strike. The Sergey Kotov patrol ship, located in the Black Sea, could reportedly carry cruise missiles and a roughly 60-person crew. Regional experts said the attack demonstrates Ukraine’s continued ability to strike behind Russian lines as the war enters its third year. Last month, Kyiv said it struck two Russian vessels in separate operations off the Crimean Peninsula’s coastline. Russia did not confirm any of these maritime attacks.

Meanwhile, the European Commission proposed new efforts on Tuesday to boost the continent’s arms industry in response to Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine. It unveiled a plan to inject $1.63 billion into a joint defense program between 2025 and 2027 to incentivize member countries to buy from European firms and thereby shift Europe into “war economy mode,” Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said. The European Union hopes the plan will help companies raise their capacity and develop new technology to become less reliant on the United States.

Chaos in Haiti. Armed gangs tried to take control of Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, on Monday during a coordinated attack on interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s rule. Henry traveled to Nairobi last week to sign off on a Kenyan-led multinational police force to tackle rising violence in the Caribbean nation. Henry’s current whereabouts are unknown, but he is believed to be somewhere abroad. The caretaker leader took power in July 2021 after then-President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination and has repeatedly delayed national elections.

Ex-coup leader Guy Philippe, who was sentenced to nine years in a U.S. prison for money-laundering, announced plans to install himself as the leader of a new transitional government, a Haitian newspaper published on Tuesday. Gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier has also asserted power in recent days, leading a planned assault over the weekend that freed around 3,700 inmates at two major Haitian prisons and forced Henry to declare a 72-hour state of emergency on Sunday.

Odds and Ends

Violence in Myanmar and conflicts in the South China Sea were expected to dominate this week’s three-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit. But on Tuesday, popstar and geopolitical influencer Taylor Swift briefly stole the limelight. She is scheduled to perform six concerts in Singapore this month in an exclusive deal that prevents her from making any other stops in Southeast Asia on her Eras Tour. The deal stirred bad blood among other regional leaders who want her to visit their nations—and boost their economies.

At the ASEAN summit on Tuesday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was forced to defend the deal when asked about it during a press conference, saying he didn’t see it as “being unfriendly” to his regional neighbors. Not everyone is convinced, though. “ASEAN’s core principles are solidarity and consensus,” one lawmaker from the Philippines told the New York Times. “What happened?”