Noting that an array of fighters from Hamas and other groups took part in the attack, the U.N. report said its experts could not determine who was responsible for the sexual assaults.

In a social media post, Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign minister, criticized the U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, for not immediately convening the Security Council to discuss the report and to declare Hamas a terrorist organization.

However, the authority to convene the Security Council does not lie with Mr. Guterres but with the president and members of the Council, according to U.N. bylaws.

Mr. Katz said that he had recalled the U.N. ambassador, Gilad Erdan, for consultation in protest of what he said was a concerted effort by Mr. Guterres to “forget the report and avoid making the necessary decisions.” Mr. Erdan was on a plane back to Israel on Tuesday, he said.

A U.N. spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, rejected the claim, saying that the work on the report was done “thoroughly and expeditiously” and that “in no way, shape or form did the secretary general do anything to ‘bury’ the report.”

Tensions have been rising between Israel and the United Nations, which is broadly distrusted in Israel. Mr. Guterres has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza and has been pushing for an immediate and binding cease-fire, as well as for the release of the hostages. Israel has accused about 30 employees of UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, of involvement in the Oct. 7 attacks, and the agency’s head on Tuesday said Israel was trying to undermine its operations.

Mr. Erdan has been an outspoken voice at the United Nations, and has previously called on Mr. Guterres to resign for remarks condemning the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

The U.N. report was based on information collected in Israel and the occupied West Bank by a team of experts led by Pramila Patten, the secretary-general’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict.

The U.N. report detailed significant challenges to determining what happened on the day of the attack. The report said it was nearly impossible to gain access to the sort of forensic evidence often used to establish sexual assault, and the experts noted a deep reservoir of suspicion among Israelis toward international organizations like the United Nations, as well as the fact that the team was on the ground for a limited period of two and a half weeks.

Many in Israel nonetheless welcomed the report. Ruth Halperin Kaddari, a legal scholar and women’s rights activist said on Tuesday that she was confused by Mr. Katz’s decision to recall Mr. Erdan.

The U.N.’s findings “serves as confirmation on the highest level of the fact that sexual violence and gender atrocities were indeed apart of Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7,” she said.

President Isaac Herzog of Israel said on X that the report was “of immense importance,” and he lauded it for its “moral clarity and integrity.”

In light of what he called the “clear and present danger” to the remaining hostages detailed in the report, “We must all continue our relentless efforts to bring all the hostages home to their families,” Mr. Herzog said.

Israeli activists have in the past expressed frustration over what they considered to be the United Nations’ slow response to the accounts of sexual assault during the Oct. 7 attack. President Herzog’s wife, Michal, said on Israeli radio on Tuesday that the report was “the first time after five months that a senior U.N. official supports what we’ve been claiming in the past months.”

In a post on Telegram, Hamas rejected the report, calling the findings false.