A UN report has said that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” rapes were committed in the Hamas Oct 7 attack, and that hostages subsequently taken to Gaza have also been raped, AFP reports.

UNRWA said Israeli authorities had “detained several of its staff from the Gaza Strip”, who later described abuses in custody.

“Our staff have reported atrocious events while they were detained and during interrogations by the Israeli authorities. These reports included torture, severe ill-treatment, abuse and sexual exploitation,” UNRWA said in a statement to AFP.

“Some of our staff have conveyed to UNRWA teams that they were forced to sign confessions under torture and ill-treatment” while being asked about Hamas’s October 7 attack.

The “IDF denies general and unsubstantiated claims regarding sexual abuse of detainees in the IDF’s detention facilities,” the Israeli military said in a statement, using the abbreviation for the Israeli Defense Forces.