New York Times Investigation Details Rape And Sexual Assaults In Israeli Prisons, Kristof Says

A New York Times investigation described a “climate of silence” around rape and sexual assaults Palestinians—men and women alike—say they suffered in Israeli custody, with Nicholas Kristof recounting interviews about a pattern involving soldiers, settlers, Shin Bet investigators, and prison guards.

“Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual assault that some readers may find disturbing”

Al Jazeera

Kristof wrote that there is “no evidence that Israeli leaders issue orders to rape,” while he cited a United Nations report describing sexual violence as having become “a central element in the mistreatment of Palestinians.”

Al Jazeera

The accounts also tied the alleged abuse to detention practices, with Kristof saying Israel has arrested about 20,000 people in the West Bank since the October 7, 2023 attack and that more than 9,000 remain in detention, many without charges.

Al Jazeera’s documentary reporting added a specific date and setting, saying Muhammad al-Bakri remembered April 10, 2024 during Eid al-Fitr, when soldiers and guard dogs surrounded him and he said, “We were raped after being stripped of our clothes.”

Al Jazeera reported that al-Bakri said the soldiers were laughing and filming him, and he recalled, “We were shouting, ‘Oh Lord, oh God’, but they were just laughing and filming us.”

The same Al Jazeera investigation framed the allegations as part of a broader pattern, citing a UN report published in March 2025 and saying Israel was added in May to the UN “blacklist of sexual violence in conflict zones.”

Mediapart

In contrast, the Arabic21 account said Israel’s prison service spokesperson rejected the allegations as “unequivocally rejected,” adding that complaints are being reviewed by relevant authorities.

That dispute over responsibility and accountability also appeared in the De Standaard report, where Sari Bashi said the Israeli army’s attorney general gave soldiers a “license to rape” as long as the victim is Palestinian, and it described Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcoming that Israel “must hunt its enemies, not its heroic fighters.”

Al Jazeera said no soldiers or guards have been convicted of sexual abuse of Palestinians, while it reported that Israel detained 10 security officers after a video of the rape of a prisoner was leaked from the Sde Teiman detention camp in the Negev desert in July 2024.

“At that moment, according to his account, the detainee had his eyes blindfolded”

Le Monde.fr

The outlet also reported that last July Israel dropped all charges against the guards, and it said the female officer who allegedly leaked the video, Major-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, was subsequently arrested.

In the same period, De Standaard described the medical and legal aftermath of the Sde Teiman case, saying the Palestinian detainee had seven broken ribs, a perforated lung, and a tear in the rectum, and that after an operation doctors sent him back to the Sde Teiman prison.

Al Jazeera further quoted UN rapporteur Albanese describing the intention behind sexual abuse as destroying the victim’s sense of self-worth, saying, “There is something deeper in the sense that torture, especially rape and other forms of sexual torture, destroys the mind.”