Sexual violence by Israeli prison guards, soldiers, settlers and interrogators against Palestinian detainees is “widespread,” according to a report by The New York Times.
The investigation published Monday is based on testimonies gathered in the occupied West Bank from 14 men and women who said that they had been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of the security forces.
Israel's Foreign Ministry rejected the Times report, claiming it was part of "a false and well-orchestrated anti-Israel campaign."
Israeli forces have detained thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, incursion, which triggered Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.
The report by Nicholas Kristof, a columnist at the Times, described "a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children – by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards."
According to the report, "there is no evidence that Israeli leaders order rapes."
However, it cited a United Nations report released in March last year that describes sexual violence as one of Israel's "standard operating procedures."
One of the cited victims spoke of how he was sexually assaulted with a rubber baton and another on how he was left screaming in pain after a woman guard squeezed his genitals.
Israeli authorities ordered prisoners to remain silent about their treatment upon their release, it added.
"Conservative social norms also inhibit discussion," it said, citing two victims who said that admitting to having been raped would hinder their sisters' and daughters' chances of finding a husband.
Israel's Foreign Ministry labeled the report "one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press."
"In an unfathomable inversion of reality, and through an endless stream of baseless lies, propagandist Nicholas Kristof turns the victim into the accused," it said in a statement on X.
In February, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned what it described as "systematic abuse", including sexual violence, against Palestinian journalists in Israeli prisons between October 2023 and January 2026.
An Israeli military spokesperson at the time claimed that detainees were treated "in accordance with international law."
