The ‘nationalistic rape’ of a mentally handicapped Israeli woman may not have been terror-related at all, Israel Police sources claimed Sunday. 

“It looks like we aren’t talking about a nationalistic crime,” Police spokesperson Merav Lapidot told Army Radio Sunday. “From the beginning, the investigation team realized that this story is more complex than it looks.”

Lapidot stressed that the change in the definition of the crime “does not reduce the trauma and damage that this woman had to go through.”

But she was clear as well that “there are gaps in the versions of the story, and therefore we need to do an exhaustive investigation.”

Lapidot further criticized the media for how it handled the news of the rape thus far, adding that the investigation is being handled by experts as thoroughly and meticulously as possible. 

“This is a classic example of why the media has to let the police do its job instead of jumping to write up headlines,” she fumed. “An investigation isn’t handled by members of the media.” 

Two Arab residents of Judea and Samaria as well as an Arab citizen of Israel are suspected of raping the woman, it was cleared for publication Wednesday.

All three were documented in footage they filmed two weeks ago raping the mentally handicapped girl in a motel in southern Tel Aviv, humiliating her and spitting on her while shouting racist slurs and threatening to harm her family.

The original statement on the case indicated it was for “nationalistic” motives, i.e. a terror attack; police hid the case from the public for ten days out of concerns it would spark clashes between Jews and Arabs.