Ben Gvir posts video mocking Palestinian female inmates’ complaints about conditions

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Sunday published a video of himself berating Palestinian women security prisoners for complaining about their detention conditions, boasting of his harsh policies and reminding them of far harsher conditions that Israeli hostages were held under in the Gaza Strip.

The undated video was filmed at the Damon security prison in northern Israel and comes amid Israel’s election campaign.

Since becoming national security minister, the far-right politician has frequently boasted about the harsh conditions imposed on Palestinian security prisoners. Both international and internal Israeli probes have found widespread abuse in prisons under his watch.

The women, whose faces are blurred, were seen in a row next to a wall as they spoke with the far-right minister and his entourage, some of whom, their faces likewise blurred, formed a human wall between Ben Gvir and the prisoners. The minister’s role includes responsibility for the Israel Prison Service.

Speaking via a translator, one of the inmates said she is a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terror group, and that conditions in the prison are harsh. She said prison staff regularly raid the cells, that inmates have no “normal showers” or water in their cells, and do not receive medical care.

The woman said that prisoners had “extremely bad” conditions and “don’t get any rights, and we have particular needs as women.”

“We haven’t bathed for three days, and we haven’t changed our underwear,” she said, warning of the risk of disease.

Ben Gvir responded approvingly as he compared the treatment to that of hostages held for up to two years by Hamas and other terrorists — including PIJ — in Gaza following the October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. Hostages reported being starved, beaten, humiliated, and going for months without bathing.

זה לא עובד עליי ״ההתבכיינויות״ של המחבלות על התנאים בבתי הכלא, לחטופים שלנו לא היו שום תנאים, אמשיך להוביל מדיניות מינימום של המינימום! pic.twitter.com/4WTESzG5eH

— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) August 30, 2026

“Our hostages had no shampoo and had no such conditions. I am proud that we have succeeded in reducing the terrorists’ prison conditions to the bare minimum,” he said.

“The days of summer camp in prisons in Israel are over,” he asserted, echoing his past statements that prison life had been too comfortable for Palestinian prisoners before he took over.

“I’m responsible for that,” Ben Gvir said. “Whoever hurts my brothers won’t receive hotel conditions.”

He added that PIJ held Israeli hostages in Gaza “who could only pray to get these kind of conditions.”

In a post accompanying the video, Ben Gvir wrote, “The ‘moaning’ of the terrorists about prison conditions doesn’t work on me.” He vowed to continue his policy of “the minimum of minimum” conditions.

According to her husband, the prisoner speaking in the video is Yasmine Shaaban, who was rearrested by Israeli forces in May 2025 during a raid on her home near Jenin, months after being released under a Gaza ceasefire agreement.

The Palestinian Authority’s Commission on Detainees Affairs accused Ben Gvir of “brutality, hatred and racism.”

The Gaza prisoners ministry, controlled by the Hamas terror group, said Ben Gvir’s video “reflects the depths of depravity to which the occupation regime has sunk.”

The Palestinian Prisoners Club lobby group told Al-Jazeera, “Ben-Gvir’s appearance in the female prisoners’ section, filming them and publishing the scenes, is an attack on their human dignity,” according to a report from the Palestine Chronicle outlet.

Ben Gvir has a history of provocative actions and statements, including videos of himself that have caused international outrage and even diplomatic spats.

At the beginning of the month, Ben Gvir published a similar video on social media in which he was seen asking a Palestinian woman about her prison conditions, and when she complained about the food and water, he told her, “The food should not be good. This is not a hotel.”

He has also previously posted a video of himself with Palestinian security prisoners as they are being roughly manhandled by guards.

In May, he published a highly contentious video of him taunting international activists detained aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla. The clip drew sharp condemnation from a wide array of foreign leaders as well as from across the Israeli political spectrum, including from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

Ben Gvir has also raised alarm by pushing ahead with a plan to surround the Ketziot Prison with a crocodile-filled moat.  Earlier this month, the Jerusalem District Court imposed a temporary injunction preventing the transfer of the animals to the facility.