Prison Service: NYT article alleging widespread rape of Palestinian prisoners ‘entirely unfounded’

The Israel Prison Service firmly denies allegations in a New York Times article of “a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence” against Palestinian prisoners by soldiers, settlers, and prison guards.

“The allegations raised are false and entirely unfounded,” the IPS tells The Times of Israel. “The Israel Prison Service is a security organization that operates in accordance with the law and under the strict oversight of numerous official inspectors.

“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,” says the prison service.

The NYT article, headlined “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians,” cites and links to a report alleging “systemic sexual violence” used by Israel, produced by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a fiercely anti-Israel NGO whose leaders have spoken in defense of Hamas, and who Israel says are operatives for Hamas front groups in Europe.

One Palestinian woman in the NYT piece says she was arrested shortly after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. Over the course of several days, she says, she was repeatedly stripped and abused by Israeli guards.

“I’d be stripped and beaten several times a day,” she tells the paper. “It was as if they were introducing me to everyone who worked there. At the beginning of each shift, they would bring the guys to strip me.”

“They threatened that if I spoke up, they would rape me, kill me, and kill my father,” says the Palestinian woman, who asked not to be named.

Another prisoner says he was raped by a trained prison dog. The unsubstantiated claim that Israel trains dogs to assault prisoners has circulated widely in recent weeks among some pro-Palestinian activists.