Civilians in Israel and Palestine ‘cannot be abandoned’, says top UN official on sexual violence in conflict

Amid worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, briefed the Security Council in New York on Monday on her recent report relating to the 7 October attacks in Israel. She said while nothing can justify the "deliberate violence" perpetrated by Hamas, nothing could justify "the collective punishment of the people in Gaza".