WASHINGTON, United States: A New York Times report has said that sexual violence by Israeli prison guards, soldiers, settlers and interrogators against Palestinian detainees is “widespread”.
The investigation published on 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 strongly rejected the Times report, describing it as being part of “a false and well-orchestrated anti-Israel campaign”.
Israeli forces have detained thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank since Hamas´s October 7, 2023 attack, which triggered Israel´s offensive in 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.
