Family of woman cited in sexual violence report says they were manipulated by reporters

Late last month, The New York Times published a lengthy investigative report detailing a pattern of sexual assault and rape allegedly committed by Palestinian fighters after they launched an attack on southern Israel on 7 October.

The New York Times story centres around the case of one woman, Gal Abdush, who the newspaper identified as "the woman in the black dress", and said she was the individual in a video that showed evidence of a woman who had been raped.

However, following the report's publication, Mondoweiss reported that members of Abdush's family contradicted the claims, saying it was not yet known whether she was raped or not. Some family members denied she was raped altogether, and said that the reporters working on the story manipulated them.

A report published in Hebrew by Haaretz stated that police are having difficulties locating the victims of sexual assault or witnesses to such acts which allegedly occurred during the attacks on Israel by Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups.