Comment by gruez

It's not a stretch by any means, that NYT article is textbook propaganda and the wikipedia article elaborates on it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screams_Without_Words because of lack of forensic evidence - no autopsies conducted, no physical evidence, bodies buried quickly without examination. Witness reliability is suspect due to contradicting family testimonies, inconsistent witness accounts. There are also methodological issues like use of biased reporters (Anat Schwartz had no prior reporting experience, was primarily a filmmaker and was previously part of the israeli military intelligence) and over-reliance on contradictory witness testimony without hard evidence.

"Note: The Intercept reported that Anat Schwartz had "extensive conversations" with ZAKA members such as Yossi Landau, whom she relied on for accounts of bodies of women claimed to have been found with signs of sexual violence. The Intercept adds that ZAKA and Landau have been documented to have mishandled evidence and spread multiple false stories about the events of October 7, including debunked allegations of Hamas operatives beheading babies and cutting the fetus from a pregnant woman's body, and that its workers are not trained forensic scientists or crime scene experts, but that these shortcomings are not mentioned by the NYT article."

[1] https://theintercept.com/2024/02/28/new-york-times-anat-schw...

Why did Israel refuse cooperation if there was any evidence for sexual violence?

"The UN's special representative on conflict-related sexual violence asked to investigate Hamas' alleged crimes on October 7 and towards the hostages, but Israel refused her request to access Israeli detention facilities to examine claims of IDF abuse. Israeli women's rights groups warn this could lead to Israel, instead of Hamas, being added to the UN's sexual violence blacklist" [1]

The UN envoy also stated in its report they did not and could not collect any forensic evidence due to the lack of Israel's cooperation. "In the more than 5,000 photos and around fifty hours of footage from the attacks that the mission team reviewed, “no digital evidence specifically depicting acts of sexual violence was found.” Further, “no tangible indications of rape could be identified” in digital analyses of corpses by the mission team." [2]

There is however forensic evidence and video footage of israelis raping[3] Palestinians: "After the Haaretz report of dozens of deaths, there was no new comment. Later that same week in June, the New York Times published an investigation into the conditions at Sde Teiman, which contained testimony from former prisoners that their Israeli jailors had tortured them with anal rape by a metal rod, among other abuses."

[1] https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-01-08/ty-article/.p...

[2] https://progressive.org/op-eds/what-did-the-un-report-on-sex...

[3] https://theintercept.com/2024/08/09/israel-prison-sde-teiman...

It's also worth noting that every Israeli (with a few exceptions) has military service obligations so every Israeli journalist has served in the IDF at some point.