Israel's Foreign Ministry accused the New York Times of seeking to deliberately undermine the publication of a 300-page report documenting the mass rapes committed by Hamas terrorists during and after the October 7 massacre by publishing false accusations against Israel ahead of the release of the report.
"The New York Times, in service of a Hamas-driven narrative, deliberately timed its piece to undermine today’s horrific Civil Commission report documenting Hamas’ preplanned, systematic sexual atrocities on Oct. 7 and against hostages thereafter - attempting to create false equivalence and belittle documented crimes," the ministry stated.
It stated that the New York Times piece was "built on unverified claims and Hamas-linked sources like EMHRM. No evidence. No verified complaints. A politically driven smear campaign by a biased paper designed to support efforts to blacklist Israel. The ministry demanded that "this disgusting shameful piece must be removed immediately."
In another statement, the ministry said" "This isn’t journalism. It’s Hamas propaganda, a distortion of the truth and the facts all serving an anti-Israel agenda."
The Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children published its report on Hamas's rapes today (Tuesday), titled 'Silenced No More: The Untold Atrocities of October 7th and Against Hostages in Captivity.'
The report is based on testimony from over 430 survivors, witnesses, and medical workers who treated victims, and over 1,800 hours worth of video and photographic evidence, much of which was shot by the Hamas terrorists who recorded their crimes.
Yesterday, shortly before the publication of the detailed report, New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof published an opinion piece claiming that there is widespread sexual abuse of Arab prisoners in Israeli prisons. Kristof's piece has been criticized for a lack of evidence, relying on anonymous testimony, and for using non-credible sources, such as an NGO that is known to spread fake conspiracy theories about Israeli crimes, including the false claim that Israel has trained dogs to rape prisoners, a claim that is made in Kristof's piece.