New York Times raises skepticism over its Hamas sexual assault story

A report published Monday by The New York Times is countering its own story published nearly three months earlier about members of Hamas allegedly sexually assaulting Israeli women during its October 7 attack. 

The report acknowledges a video taken by an Israeli soldier showing “the bodies of three female victims fully clothed and with no apparent signs of sexual violence at a home where many residents had believed the assaults occurred.”

On Dec. 28, The Times published a lengthy investigative report delving into the alleged rape and sexual violence by Hamas on Oct. 7.

It included statements from an unidentified paramedic belonging to an Israeli commando unit.

Several media outlets including The Associated Press, CNN and The Washington Post published similar narratives attributed to an anonymous military paramedic.

The Times article cited three alleged victims of sexual assault. 

Two of them, from Kibbutz Be’eri, were described with enough detail to potentially identify them as sisters with the last name Sharabi, aged 13 and 16.

Michal Paikin, a spokesperson for Kibbutz Be’eri, categorically rejected the allegations about the sisters, saying while they were shot, they were not subjected to sexual abuse.

Further undermining the credibility of the allegations, Paikin called into question the reliability of testimony by an Israeli special forces paramedic, who was the primary source for The Times article.

According to the latest Times report, residents of the kibbutz commented on the newly surfaced video footage.

They said one home in Kibbutz Be’eri housed the two teenage girls who were killed, and dismissed claims of sexual assault.

The report included comments from Nili Bar Sinai, a member of the kibbutz group investigating the allegations, saying “this story is false.”