In video filmed next to bound prisoners, Ben Gvir urges ‘death penalty for terrorists’
Far-right minister brags about harsh treatment in prisons under his leadership, which several freed hostages have said led their captors in Gaza to torture them
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National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Friday posted a video of himself standing over a row of Palestinian prisoners lying prone with their hands tied, while calling for the “death penalty for terrorists.”
In footage shared on his personal Telegram channel, the far-right minister and chairman of the Otzma Yehudit party addressed the camera while pointing at a dozen detainees face down in front of an Israeli flag.
“These guys, the Nukhba who came to kill children, women, our babies. Look at them today,” the far-right minister said, referring to the elite unit of Hamas’s military wing which led the October 7, 2023, invasion and massacres on southern Israel.
“But there’s still something that must be done: the death penalty for the terrorists,” he added.
Ben Gvir, who is known for his inflammatory remarks, has threatened to stop voting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition if his bill calling for a death penalty for terrorists is not put to a parliamentary vote soon.
In a lengthy caption posted alongside the video on Friday, Ben Gvir said that after Israel killed Hamas’s leaders, the Islamist terror group “tortured the hostages” abducted to Gaza after its bloody cross-border attack on October 7, 2023. He went on to boast about the harsh detention conditions he had imposed on Palestinian prisoners, something he has bragged about repeatedly in recent months.
Several freed hostages have reported being tortured as a result of Ben Gvir’s highly publicized efforts to worsen conditions for Palestinian inmates, including a former captive who said in an interview aired this week that his captors wrote “an eye for an eye” on his back as a message to the far-right minister. Ben Gvir has claimed in response that the reports are “part of a campaign in the service of Hamas that is intended to improve prison conditions for the terrorists.”
Once again, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Ben Gvir speaks about the Palestinian abductees and openly incites against them while they stand bound before him, saying: “Do you see them? This is how they are now — but one thing remains to be done, and that is to… pic.twitter.com/k9ylK5Fkvk
— غزة 24 | التغطية مستمرة (@Gaza24Live) October 31, 2025
“I am proud of the revolution in the prisons, unlike anything since the founding of the state; today, instead of a summer camp, there is deterrence. There are no more smiles there — we erase them,” Ben Gvir said Friday.
“Ask any terrorist who passed through my prison, if he would like to return there — they are afraid, trembling, and the number of attacks has fallen remarkably,” he added.
Earlier this month, Ben Gvir told reporters that, with the release of the last 20 living hostages from Gaza, there were “no more excuses” not to advance the legislation, which he asserted would deter terrorism.
“As part of the deal signed with Hamas, unfortunately, hundreds of murderous terrorists were released from prison. When terrorists remain alive, the terrorists outside are motivated to carry out kidnappings in order to free their Nazi brothers in future deals,” he said. “If they murder a Jew, they do not stay alive.”
Ben Gvir recently threatened to bolt the government if Hamas “continues to exist” after the hostages are freed, stating that his party would not be a part of “a national defeat” and “eternal disgrace,” and would not agree to a situation in which the terrorist group is able to rebuild itself after the end of hostilities.
He was one of a small handful of ministers who voted against the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal. Earlier this year, Ben Gvir’s party quit the coalition for several months to protest the acceptance of a previous partial ceasefire-hostage deal that saw the release of 30 hostages and the return of eight bodies.
Following a deadly terror attack in Jerusalem last month, Otzma Yehudit announced that it intended to raise the death penalty issue in the Knesset again, with Hebrew media reporting that the far-right party believed the coalition had failed to advance the issue fast enough and the discussion needed to be expedited.
The Knesset National Security Committee subsequently voted to advance a bill by Har-Melech allowing courts to impose the death penalty on terrorists who kill Israelis, paving the way for the first of three plenum votes necessary for it to become law.
The legislation had long been stalled due to high-level opposition within the government and security services.
Ben Gvir said in September that he had been approached by “people in the Prime Minister’s Office” who asked him to postpone the death penalty discussion over concerns that it could complicate efforts to free the hostages, but had refused. Instead, he claimed at the time that the bill would “bring deterrence” and “advance the return of the hostages” while showing Hamas that “there is a price tag for what they did” on October 7.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced on Thursday that he is advancing legislation in the Knesset to establish a special criminal tribunal to try Gazans accused of carrying out massacres and atrocities on October 7, 2023, in a process that could result in death sentences being handed down to those convicted.
The Times of Israel Community.