Israeli authorities on Monday denounced as “blood libel” a New York Times opinion story alleging widespread rape of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, noting that it relied on sources that have alleged ties to the Hamas terror group or have praised it.

“Today, The New York Times chose to publish one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, referring to the column.

“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, noting the Hamas terror group’s sexual crimes against Israelis on October 7, 2023, and against hostages abducted during that attack throughout their subsequent captivity.

Kristof acknowledged the reaction, sharing it on X with the caption “Critical take from Israel’s Foreign Ministry on my column about sexual assaults of Palestinian men, women and children,” and offering an un-paywalled link to the piece.

The column, which appeared on Monday, alleged “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 quoted testimony from Palestinians who said they’d been regularly stripped naked in prison and groped, forcibly penetrated with various objects, or been mounted and raped by specially trained dogs. The latter claim, circulating in anti-Israel media for some time, has recently been amplified by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, which was also a key source for Kristof’s report.

The Israel Prison Service, responding to a request for comment on the column, said: “The allegations raised are false and entirely unfounded.”

“The Israel Prison Service is a security organization that operates in accordance with the law and under the strict oversight of numerous official inspectors,” the IPS told The Times of Israel.

“All prisoners are held in accordance with the law, while safeguarding their basic rights and under the supervision of a professional and skilled prison staff,” it said.

Israel highlights photo of NGO leaders with Hamas officials

Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter also responded to the article, posting a short video statement to X and charging that Kristof and the Times “count on you not pulling the curtain back on their lies.”

“Let me be clear: Any complaint of unlawful conduct by Israeli authorities should be submitted to investigative bodies and, as is customary in a democratic society, those complaints will be reviewed........

© The Times of Israel