Israeli foreign ministry calls it libel without providing any concrete counter-evidence
A Palestinian man reacts to the destruction after an Israeli strike on the Sheikh Radwan Health Centre run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the north of Gaza City on August 6, 2025. Photo: AFP
A New York Times opinion columnist has reported that Palestinian detainees have been subjected to sexual violence and other forms of abuse in Israeli detention facilities, citing interviews with former detainees and findings from rights organisations.
In a column published on Sunday, columnist Nicholas Kristof said he interviewed 14 Palestinian men and women who described alleged sexual assaults, beatings, threats of sexual violence and humiliation during detention or encounters with Israeli forces and settlers.
Kristof noted that there was “no evidence that Israeli leaders order rapes,” but argued that Israeli authorities had created “a security apparatus where sexual violence has become,” citing a United Nations report.
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The article also referenced testimonies from former detainees who alleged abuse during imprisonment, as well as reports by organisations including Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Save the Children, B’Tselem and the Committee to Protect Journalists documenting alleged mistreatment of Palestinian detainees.
Kristof further cited a 49-page UN report published last year that accused Israel of “systematically” subjecting Palestinians to “sexualised torture.” The report also alleged that some former detainees were warned by Israeli authorities not to speak publicly about their treatment after release.
The Israel Prison Service (IPS), however, rejected the allegations. Quoted by The Times of Israel, the IPS described the claims as “false and entirely unfounded,” adding that it operates “in accordance with the law and under the strict oversight of numerous official inspectors.” It said all prisoners are held in accordance with legal standards and their basic rights are safeguarded under professional supervision.
Today, the @nytimes chose to publish 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.
Israel – whose…— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) May 11, 2026
Separately, the Israeli Foreign Ministry also dismissed the report in a post on X, accusing Kristof of presenting “an unfathomable inversion of reality” and describing the publication as part of what it called an “anti-Israel campaign.”
Despite these denials, the NYT column argued that the alleged abuses reflect systemic issues within the detention framework rather than isolated incidents.
It is argued that legal and institutional frameworks have contributed to the dehumanisation of Palestinians, creating conditions in which allegations of torture and sexual abuse have been raised.
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These conditions are also described as having led to widespread dispossession, with reference made to a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, published in March 2026.
The report stated that “the escalation of torture in Israeli detention centres is a coordinated plan.” It further alleged that Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the Israel Prison Service, has promoted a “prison revolution” that institutionalised a policy of degradation.
It also cited an order issued on November 14 2023 under which Palestinian detainees designated as “terrorists” were allegedly placed in dark cells while handcuffed, held in facilities with iron beds and pit toilets, and subjected to continuous playback of the Israeli national anthem.
