Palestinian prisoners talking to family or friends. Photo: Hagai Aharon/AFP/Getty Images.
Security service chief Ronen Bar warned that prison capacity allows no more than 14,500 prisoners and that the situation is a ‘time bomb’
The head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, Ronen Bar, warned in a recent letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir that 21,000 Palestinians are imprisoned in jails across Israel, referring to the issue as an “incarceration crisis.”
The letter was delivered to Netanyahu and Ben Gvir last week. Its contents were revealed in a report by Hebrew news site Ynet on 2 July.
In the letter, also sent to Israeli police commander Kobi Yacovi and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, Bar warned that “the incarceration crisis constitutes a real strategic crisis,” according to Ynet.
The situation in Israel’s prisons is a “time bomb,” Bar said. “It may also endanger senior Israelis abroad and expose them to international tribunals,” given the fact that the conditions and conduct towards Palestinians in these prisons “borders on abuse.”
Bar strongly criticized Ben Gvir, who is in charge of the prison system, and called “for the cancellation of various measures that harmed the conditions of the prisoners.”
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Since Netanyahu’s government assumed power in November 2022, Ben Gvir has significantly tightened already brutal and restrictive measures against Palestinian prisoners. The national security minister has also recently doubled down on his position, demanding the execution of Palestinian prisoners.
The Shin Bet chief goes on to say in his letter that now – after several months of war – the current number of incarcerated people stands at 21,000, despite prison capacity allowing for no more than 14,500.
It was previously assumed that around 9,000 to 10,000 Palestinians were detained across Israeli prisons.
“Emergency legislation allows for the overcrowding of prisons almost without limits. This crisis arose despite warnings that were sent to the Ministry of National Security to prepare for this about a year ago,” Bar said in his letter.
Bar also slammed Ben Gvir for his cancellation of Red Cross visits to the prison.
“Following the 7 October attack, Israel denied rights to prisoners that were acceptable before the war, including those which are obligated in accordance with international law [e.g., Red Cross visits],” Bar said.
He also warned that the prison issue opens individuals within Israel’s government to prosecution at the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC), particularly in light of the recent requests by the ICC for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his defense minister over war crimes in Gaza.
“The issue of prison conditions is well regulated in international law,” he emphasized.
He also warned that the incarceration crisis is significantly harming “the pace and quality” of Israel’s ability to “counter terrorism,” and that in recent months, the security establishment has been forced to cancel arrests of suspects or of “those who are defined as posing a clear and immediate danger to security.”
“Bottom line, the incarceration crisis creates threats to Israel’s national security.”
The director of Al-Shifa Hospital in north Gaza, Dr Mohammed Abu Salmiya, was released from Israeli detention on 1 July, sparking outrage across Israel and within its political establishment. Abu Salmiya is viewed by Israelis as complicit in Hamas’ alleged holding of captives inside Al-Shifa Hospital – one of many claims about the medical facility that Israel has been unable to prove.
He was released alongside dozens of other Palestinian prisoners. Following the release, Israeli officials blamed one another for allowing him to be freed, and Netanyahu said he ordered a probe into the matter.
According to Ynet, Abu Salmiya “was included in a group of ‘low-risk’ detainees who were released as part of the need to help solve the incarceration crisis.”
