Story perspectives

Kristof Alleges Israeli Soldiers Systematically Assault Palestinians

5/16/2026

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Kristof Accuses Assault

Survivor testimonies in Kristof’s column claim Israeli soldiers carried out systematic sexual assault against Palestinians.
Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times column alleged sexual assault by soldiers, prompting Israel’s ministry to call it a blood libel.
U.S. military aid, he argued, implicates America and should be conditioned on human-rights safeguards.
Euro-Med Monitor, Save the Children, B’Tselem and other NGOs were cited documenting sexual violence.

Right

Commission Accuses Hamas

An Israeli civil commission released an investigation saying Hamas deliberately used sexual violence as a weapon in the Oct. 7 attacks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel will file the harshest defamation suit against the New York Times and columnist Nicholas Kristof.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer denounced the column as propaganda, saying the Times echoed Hamas narratives.
The commission urged U.S. lawmakers and international bodies to recognize the abuse and sanction perpetrators.

History

Historical Context

The ICTY’s 1990s prosecutions of Bosnian-Serb commanders—such as Stanislav Galic in 2003 and later Radovan Karadžic in 2016—established that systematic sexual violence could be treated as a war crime. The siege of Sarajevo, lasting 1,425 days and causing nearly 14,000 deaths, underscored the scale of atrocities, shaping today’s efforts to apply international criminal law to allegations of abuse by Israeli forces.

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Kristof Accuses Assault

Survivor testimonies in Kristof’s column claim Israeli soldiers carried out systematic sexual assault against Palestinians.
Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times column alleged sexual assault by soldiers, prompting Israel’s ministry to call it a blood libel.
U.S. military aid, he argued, implicates America and should be conditioned on human-rights safeguards.
Euro-Med Monitor, Save the Children, B’Tselem and other NGOs were cited documenting sexual violence.

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