Thread by @HonestReporting

1/
The @nytimes just published one of the most serious sets of allegations imaginable against Israel – claims of systematic sexual violence, including a bizarre story about carrots and trained rape dogs. We checked the sources.

What we found is journalistic malpractice. 🧵

2/
First, Sami al‑Sai, introduced by @NickKristof as a “freelance journalist.” What the NYT doesn’t tell you: al‑Sai has a long record of celebrating terrorists on social media.

Kristof repeats gruesome details of “vomit, blood and broken teeth” and lets al‑Sai claim he was arrested to pressure him into becoming an informant. In reality, al‑Sai had already been jailed in 2016 for incitement – and his 2024 arrest was again for incitement.

His own Facebook explains why.

3/
On 23 March 2023 al‑Sai posted about Amir Abu Khadija, calling him “our martyred prince.”
Abu Khadija wasn’t some random victim. He was the founder and leader of the Tulkarm Battalion – a terrorist group behind multiple deadly attacks, including:
🔴30 May 2023 – Israeli civilian murdered near Hermesh
🔴19 Oct 2023 – 1 IDF officer killed, 10 wounded
🔴23 Mar 2024 – 4 Israeli soldiers killed
🔴1 Jul 2024 – 1 soldier killed, another severely injured

In December 2023 – just two months before his arrest – al‑Sai posted videos and photos celebrating armed fighters in Nur Shams camp.

16 Dec – “Moons of Nur Shams camp,” showing terrorists in tactical gear

18 Dec – cheering captured Israeli military equipment
The very next day, 17 Dec, Israeli forces raided Nur Shams, killing five terrorists. Al‑Sai had close access to the gunmen Israel was targeting. NYT’s due diligence on his background? Zero.

4/
On 8 October 2023 – one day after the Hamas massacres – al‑Sai posted triumphantly about “the green flag” flying across the West Bank, “over the camps of the occupier and his tanks,” and “decorating the foreheads of the heroic fighters.”

While Israelis were still counting their dead and kidnapped, Kristof’s “journalist” source was openly glorifying the Oct 7 attackers as heroic fighters under the Hamas flag.

Whether the @nytimes saw this and hid it, or simply never bothered to look, it never appears in the piece – and either option is a serious journalistic failure.

5/
Al‑Sai has given two versions of his abuse story.
In early 2025 he gave B’Tselem a detailed testimony about his detention (Feb 2024–Jun 2025):
- Three guards pinned him down and pushed “something hard” into his anus
- They repeated this six times
- Poured some kind of liquid on his backside
- Laughed, jeered, beat and kicked him

Now, in Kristof’s NYT column, the story suddenly grows new, cinematic elements:
- A guard shouts “Give me the carrots,” and they allegedly use a carrot
- Someone says in Hebrew “don’t take photos” – a detail he now stresses he understood
- A female guard “grabs his penis and testicles,” says “these are mine,” then squeezes
- Guards stop to have a cigarette break while he lies bleeding
- He later discovers “other people’s vomit, blood and broken teeth” embedded in his skin

Why were these extraordinarily specific, traumatic details – carrots, the female guard’s dialogue, the Hebrew camera warning – missing from his first testimony? These are not the kind of details victims somehow forget.

6/
The article also leans heavily on Hebron activist Issa Amro – but his story has also changed over time.

Feb 2024 (Washington Post): Amro says he was threatened with sexual assault during a 10‑hour detention on Oct 7.

May 2026 (Kristof’s NYT piece): Amro is presented as an already‑established victim of sexual assault, folded seamlessly into a supposed wider pattern.

That’s a major shift: from “threatened” to unquestioned “victim,” without any clarification to readers about what changed, when, or why. Which version is true? Kristof doesn’t ask.

7/
Next problem: the article’s “evidence” for an Israeli policy of sexual torture leans heavily on Euro‑Med Human Rights Monitor, cited as if it were a neutral watchdog. In reality, Euro‑Med’s leadership has documented links to Hamas and a long record of extreme, unverified accusations against Israel.

In June 2024 it even claimed Israel “trains dogs to rape prisoners” – the same grotesque libel echoed in Kristof’s piece. There is not a shred of credible evidence whatsoever for any systematic program of “trained rape dogs,” and, based on canine biology and behaviour, the scenario described is inherently implausible as a repeatable, controlled practice.

This is not a neutral fact‑finding body. It’s an ideological advocacy group whose narratives the NYT has simply laundered into print.

8/
As for the rapist dogs claim, Kristof even cites Shaiel Ben‑Ephraim as an authority. The same Ben‑Ephraim left UCLA after multiple sexual‑harassment allegations involving inappropriate conduct toward minors, then rebranded from failed academic to “geopolitical analyst” and “humanitarian activist” while pushing wild anti‑Israel conspiracy theories.

This is who the @nytimes links to in substantiating one of the most grotesque accusations in the piece.
x.com/HonestReportin…

9/
By now, a pattern is hard to miss:

✓ Key sources whose public social‑media histories show open support for terrorist groups.
✓ Stories that grow steadily more lurid over time, with dramatic new details added years later.
✓ Heavy reliance on a Hamas‑linked NGO with a record of wild, uncorroborated allegations.
✓ The most sensational claims based on anonymous testimony, with no hard evidence presented.

This is not how you build a case for crimes as serious as systematic rape.

10/
Allegations of sexual violence are serious. Real victims – Israeli and Palestinian – deserve rigorous reporting that checks facts and filters out propaganda.

When the @nytimes builds explosive claims on compromised sources, shifting stories and ideological NGOs, it does the opposite: it erodes trust in journalism and makes it harder for genuine victims to be believed.