Organization Cited in New York Times’s Israeli Prison Rape Story Shutters Gaza Office

The Hamas-linked human rights group at the center of the controversial New York Times op-ed alleging systemic sexual abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prisons is shutting down its Gaza office after nearly 15 years.Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor announced its closure on Tuesday, calling it a “precautionary step” following “recent Israeli threats, defamation, and punitive measures against the organisation and its staff.” The group accused Israeli political figures and news channels of waging a “coordinated campaign of incitement and defamation” against it. Euro-Med bills itself as an “independent, nonprofit organization that advocates for the human rights of all persons,” though its efforts have been overwhelmingly focused on anti-Israel advocacy. Reports have further alleged that the Geneva-based group maintains ties to Palestinian terrorist organizations and serves as a major engine of anti-Israel propaganda campaigns worldwide. Israel has designated the group a terrorist organization since 2015.The group has faced scrutiny for describing Israelis kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 and taken hostage in Gaza as having been “arrested and moved to the Gaza Strip” — and for amplifying the libel that Israel harvests the organs of dead Palestinians. In May, Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism released a report alleging that Euro-Med’s founder and chairman, Ramy Abdu, was involved with a Hamas-affiliated organization called IPalestine.Euro-Med was thrust into the spotlight after appearing as a primary source in writer Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times opinion piece accusing Israeli security forces of widespread sexual abuse of Palestinians, including training security dogs to rape prisoners.The article’s credibility came under immediate challenge as media watchdog groups and commentators said that the piece relied on sources with documented histories of glorifying terrorists or records of extreme anti-Israel bias. The piece also quoted a former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, in apparent validation of the claims — a characterization Mr. Olmert later disputed, saying his words had been taken out of context and misrepresented.Israel’s foreign ministry further alleged that the Times ran Mr. Kristof’s column with knowledge that a separate report on Hamas’s systemic sexual violence during and after the October 7, 2023, attack was set for imminent release by CNN and other outlets. The ministry said the independent Civil Commission that produced the report approached the Times with its findings “months ago” but was turned down. The Times defended the story as “extensively fact-checked” and dismissed the potential suit as “part of a well-worn political playbook that aims to undermine independent reporting.”Prime Minister Netanyahu said he had directed the government to pursue a defamation lawsuit against the Times, condemning the paper for having “defamed the soldiers of Israel and perpetuated a blood libel about rape, trying to create a false symmetry between the genocidal terrorists of Hamas and Israel’s valiant soldiers.” It is unclear whether Israel has moved forward with legal action. Despite the controversies surrounding Euro-Med Monitor’s Hamas ties, mainstream media outlets have continued to cite it as a credible source. Between March 2025 and May 2026, the organization was cited 104 times across 28 outlets, including CNN, the Associated Press, and the New York Times, according to media watchdog group HonestReporting. “In roughly 90 percent of those mentions, outlets failed to note the organization’s record of promoting anti-Israel conspiracy theories and demonstrable bias,” HonestReporting noted.

Organization Cited in New York Times’s Israeli Prison Rape Story Shutters Gaza Office

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