A screenshot of the story.

A Russian newspaper has published a blood libel claiming that Israel injects its Palestinian prisoners with “dangerous viruses.”

The newspaper Pravda writes: “A Palestinian released from Israeli jails, Rania Saqa, has brought to light that the Israeli regime injected detainees that are out of prisons with dangerous viruses.”

Saqa said it was standard procedure for the authorities to inject the Palestinians before releasing them. The paper then wrote “Most former inmates die after being released from Israeli jails.”

“This is a racist, lowly and repulsive lie based solely on its authors’ sick imagination,” Yigal Palmor, a senior spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told JTA.  “Those who know Fascist propaganda will easily recognize its distinct characteristics in this crude lie spread by Pravda.”

According to JTA,  Pravda served as a mouthpiece for the Communist regime until its fall in 1991, when it was shuttered before reopening in 1997. Its print edition has approximately 100,000 readers.