The U.N. investigators documented nearly 10,000 cases of conflict-related sexual violence around the world in 2025, more than double the number they verified the year before.

That figure “represents the very tip of the iceberg,” a U.N. special representative, Pramila Patten, told reporters on Friday. She attributed the increase to the large number of global conflicts “and the fact that perpetrators are feeling emboldened by a context of impunity where this crime is almost cost free.”

U.N. investigators, the report said, verified “multiple incidents of conflict-related sexual violence, including as a form of torture, inflicted against 14 men, seven women, nine boys and one girl from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”

Thirteen cases took place in 2025, the report said, and 18 others in the two preceding years.

“Rape and gang rape, in some cases repeated, were perpetrated against nine victims, the majority from Gaza,” the report said, adding that the cases took place primarily during detention and interrogation. The report said the violence had occurred at military camps, checkpoints, prisons and a police station. The perpetrators included members of the Israeli military, prison service and police counterterrorism unit, it said.

“Violations consisted of rape, including with objects, gang rape, attempted rape, physical violence to the genitals, instances of targeted shooting of the genitals, touching of breasts and genitals, strip and cavity searches conducted without apparent security justification, forced nudity and threats of rape,” the report said.