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The Tribeca Festival has issued a statement condemning remarks made by US comedian Elon Gold and influencer Lizzy Savetsky on the red carpet of Gold’s film The Wedding Entertainer (The Tale of Moishe Badhan).

Organisers said the comments, which made fun of sexual violence against Palestinians in Israel, were “offensive and unacceptable”.

“Sexual violence and human suffering should never be mocked or minimised,” the statement read. It said the remarks “do not reflect the Tribeca Festival’s values” and the organising team regrets “the hurt they have caused”.

On Saturday, Gold spoke to Savetsky about his film, saying it was “a really big deal” for his Israel-made film to be screening at the Tribeca Festival. He then joked that he was “only raped by two Israeli dogs”, to which Savetsky countered, “I thought they only raped Palestinians.”

Variety reports that while Gold was on the red carpet as a cast member, Savetsky was not part of any project at the festival this year and was instead invited as a guest of the team behind The Wedding Entertainer (The Tale of Moishe Badhan).

While the joke was obviously offensive, it was made much more so by reports of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons being subjected to sexual abuse and dog attacks as a method of intimidation.

According to a report from Al Jazeera, Kifaya Khraim from the Ramallah-based Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling, said she had spoken to 75 women who were detained in different stations across Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. All 75 said they had been sexually abused in prison.

Khraim said both Palestinian men and women were sexually abused in prison and both male and female Israeli personnel took part in the abuse and torture of detainees.

The report said Israeli prisons held more than 9,600 Palestinians as of this April.