Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar have instructed “the initiation of a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times”, according to Al Jazeera.

The move comes after the newspaper recently published an op-ed alleging widespread sexual violence by Israeli prison guards and soldiers against Palestinian detainees.

In a statement, Israel’s foreign ministry called the piece “one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press”.

The NYT investigation, published on Monday, is based on testimonies gathered in the Israeli-occupied West Bank from 14 men and women who said they’d been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or soldiers.