(JTA) — A young, mentally-disabled woman who said she had been raped by three Palestinians because she is Jewish reportedly recanted her version of events.

The woman, a 20-year-old resident of Tel Aviv whom Israeli media described as having a reduced cognitive ability, told police that she had been gang raped on May 11, the eve of Israeli Independence Day, in southern Tel Aviv. But on Wednesday police said she had claimed she consented to having sex with the three men.

Subsequently, the two Palestinian in custody for the alleged rape would soon be released, a police spokesperson told Amy Radio.

But the woman’s lawyer, Adi Carmeli, insisted that she had been raped as “legally, she cannot consent” to sex because of her disability. The woman was appointed a legal guardian, her aunt, because she does not possess the faculties necessary to make legally-binding decisions, he said.

The woman accused two Palestinians in their 20s and another Palestinian minor of raping her, while hurling racist insults at her. One of the alleged attackers, she had said, told her: “You’re a Jew and that’s what you deserve” while she was being raped.

The minor and another suspect denied any wrongdoing as police searched for a third suspect.

The case generated a heated debate amid conflicting statements by police investigators on the alleged nationalistic element of the incident. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week made a statement on Facebook in which he accused media of silencing the incident and vowed to punish the guilty parties. He later apologized for referencing the incident while it was still investigated, citing his emotional state cause by how “shocking” the incident was.

The woman, 20, reportedly was visiting her aunt in the same building where the men were living. She entered the men’s apartment at their invitation, she said. At least one of the men relieved himself on the victim, according to what police told reporters after the incident.

Other politicians also criticized the police for waiting nearly a week to divulge details about the case and then only following Netanyahu’s Thursday post. Michal Rozin, a lawmaker for the left-wing Meretz party, pointed to the police’s failure to offer information earlier, calling it an attempt to hide the case from the public even though some of its details were not subject to a gag order.

She wrote a letter to Interior Security Minister Gilad Erdan asking for an explanation. “This practice of concealment is unacceptable and, I regret to say, a serious infringement on proper procedure,” she wrote. Rozin asked Erdan to look into possible police negligence or malpractice.

Rozin also took to Facebook to criticize Netanyahu’s reaction to the incident, which she said was used by Netanyahu “for political ends, to foment hatred and dissent.“

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