‘Blood libel’: Israel slams NYT report alleging ‘widespread sexual abuse’ of Palestinian prisoners

Using exceptionally harsh language, Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Monday blasted a report by the New York Times (NYT) which alleged “a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence” against Palestinian prisoners, including children.

“Today, the [NYT] 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,” the Foreign Ministry wrote on 𝕏.

It noted that Israeli citizens, including the hostages, were victims of “the most horrific sexual crimes committed by Hamas on October 7,” claiming the NYT story “is part of a false and well-orchestrated anti-Israel campaign aimed at placing Israel on the UN Secretary-General’s blacklist.”

“Israel will fight these lies with the truth - and the truth will prevail,” the ministry vowed.

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

According to Kristof, whose report was published in the newspaper’s opinion section, “there is no evidence that Israeli leaders order rapes.”

However, "in wrenching interviews, Palestinians have recounted to me 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," Kristof writes.

He goes on to cite a UN report and a report from the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor as the first sources of evidence that “systematic sexual violence” is “widely practiced as part of an organized state policy,” before citing numerous examples of such claims, without any third-party confirmation of audio-visual evidence.

As Israel’s Ambassador Yehiel Leiter pointed out in a response video to the article, the leaders of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Ramy Abdu and Mazen Kahel, have repeatedly been found to have ties to Hamas.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has also made a list of spurious claims about alleged Israeli crimes over the past years, including the allegation that Israel has employed new bombs that can “vaporize” its victims in the Gaza Strip.

“This is not a human rights organization with a bias,” explained Simone Rodan-Benzaquen of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). “It is an organization whose leadership has documented family and organizational ties to Hamas, operating under institutional cover at the heart of our democracies.”

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The @nytimes just published one of the most serious sets of allegations imaginable against Israel – claims of systematic sexual violence, including a bizarre story about carrots and trained rape dogs. We checked the sources.

What we found is journalistic malpractice. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/vBbLy0Lp0J

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 11, 2026

The NYT article goes on to cite several sources who describe the alleged “standard operating procedure” in Israeli prisons, including lurid stories of forced penetration with various objects, and even the claim that Israel trained dogs to participate in these acts.

Many of the sources have a background of engaging in naked anti-Israel activism or outright celebration of terrorism.

For example, Sami al‑Sai, who is introduced as a freelance journalist, claimed that he was detained and subjected to sexual assault in an effort to recruit him as an informant.

The @nytimes and @NickKristof count on you not pulling the curtain back on their lies.

Don’t buy into their blood libels - watch and find out who’s really behind this narrative. pic.twitter.com/Rf94hYlIFw

— Ambassador Yechiel (Michael) Leiter (@yechielleiter) May 12, 2026

However, the media watchdog Honest Reporting noted that al-Sai was jailed twice for incitement, with evidence of him celebrating terrorism, including the Oct. 7 massacre, readily available on his Facebook page.

Meanwhile, the infamous claim of trained “rape dogs” being employed in Israeli prisons has been widely publicized online by Shaiel Ben‑Ephraim, a Jewish academic turned rabid anti-Israel activist after Oct. 7, and who left UCLA after multiple sexual‑harassment allegations.

Kristof explicitly points to Ben‑Ephraim as one source for the claim in a video accompanying the article, in which he also laments that the U.S. is “complicit” in the alleged abuse due to the military aid sent to Israel.

He concluded the video by claiming: “The horrific abuse inflicted on Israeli women on Oct. 7 now happens to Palestinians, day, after day, after day.”

While describing the dogs claim as ‘backed by other accounts,’ @NickKristof’s video scrolls through a Shaiel Ben-Ephraim post. pic.twitter.com/Osuv85HY1H

— Eli Kowaz - איליי קואז (@elikowaz) May 12, 2026

“When the [NYT] builds explosive claims on compromised sources, shifting stories and ideological NGOs, it does the opposite: it erodes trust in journalism and makes it harder for genuine victims to be believed,” Honest Reporting concluded.

Leiter added that “the comparison between the claims presented in Kristof’s piece and the well documented crimes committed by Hamas on Oct. 7 cast doubt on the journalistic integrity of the article,” noting that the newspaper had an “addiction” for “disproportionally bashing Israel” and this latest story is the last “in a long list of blood libels.”