UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has lambasted Israel’s Foreign Ministry after it announced a defamation lawsuit against New York Times and called an article documenting sexual abuse against Palestinians in Israeli prisons “hideous and distorted lies”, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on X, Albanese described the article as “accurate but barely scratching the surface” and said it was “triggering hysteria” in the Israeli government, not because of the facts, but because of the audience.

“Apartheid Israel fears NYT readers will finally see and no longer ignore,” she wrote.

In a thread consisting of 22 posts, she referenced several reports and investigations documenting sexual violence specifically in the context of Israel’s unlawful detention of Palestinians, Al Jazeera noted.