Opinion | The Horror of Sexual Assault in Israeli Prisons

When Israel was attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, officials were quick to condemn the sexual violence of Hamas. “You’ve heard of the rape of Israeli women. Where the hell are you?” “Women raped, assaulted, paraded as trophies.” “Uses rape as a weapon of war.” “Sexual violence as a weapon of war by Hamas.” I went to the West Bank to talk with Palestinians who experienced sexual assault firsthand by Israeli soldiers, settlers and prison guards. Their harrowing accounts, backed by lawyers, surveys and international reports, suggest that sexual violence by Israelis against Palestinians is widespread. And that raises the question: Where is the revulsion against sexual assault now? I don’t see any evidence that Israeli leaders order rape, but they have built a security apparatus where, according to a 2025 United Nations report, sexual violence is a a major element in the ill-treatment of Palestinians. Prime Minister Netanyahu has called accusations of sexual violence by Israelis baseless. But my reporting suggests that sexual violence has greatly worsened under Netanyahu in recent years. What exactly does this look like? Here’s what I found. This is Sami al-Sai, a freelance journalist for international news organizations. They [prison guards] took me to a solitary cell, while handcuffed, leg cuffed and blindfolded. They put me on the ground in kneeling position with head down. They took off my pants and boxers, and started raping me with sticks and carrots in a very aggressive and painful way and harassing and touching my genitals in a very painful and forceful way. I spoke to a farmer who recounted how 20 settlers rampaged through Palestinian homes and used a hunting knife to cut off his clothes. I got out of the tent. I was standing right here. They pulled me inside. They used those zip ties, tied my hands with more than one zip tie. They tied my legs too. Hit me in the eye with a fist. They pulled me inside right here and started pouring dirt on me and water. They took off my pants and zip tied my penis and started pulling it. The zip ties were still on the ground when I visited. And this is Mohammad Matar, a Palestinian Authority official —— —— who says he was with two other Palestinians trying to protect a Bedouin village under attack from settlers when the settlers seized them, stripped them, beat them. And he says one tried to rape him with a stick. And he actually has some evidence of this interaction with the settlers in the form of a photo that the settlers posted to social media. One woman, 23 at the time of her detention, told me that she was regularly stripped naked, forcibly bent over and groped all over her body by male and female guards. One journalist said he had been held down and raped by a dog, a claim backed by other accounts from prisoners who report they underwent the same thing. I’m appalled by this pattern of abuse, partly because our American tax dollars subsidize the Israeli security forces. I fear that leaves us complicit. The United States has leverage, and we could use it to insist on an end to the impunity and to demand that Red Cross visits be restored for Palestinian detainees. Look, whether you consider yourself pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian, here’s one thing we should be able to agree on: We’re anti-rape. The horrific abuse inflicted on Israeli women on Oct. 7 now happens to Palestinians day after day after day.