Congregants from prison chief's synagogue taken on tour to see Hamas prisoners - report

Nitzan jail visit said to include lunch, Q&A with staff and sermon for some 20 members of Kobi Yaakobi’s Jerusalem congregation, including rabbi; prison service doesn’t deny report

Congregants of Police Service chief Kobi Yaakobi’s Jerusalem synagogue reportedly took a tour, ate lunch and heard a sermon at Ramle’s Nitzan Prison, where they were shown members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force who took part in the terror group’s onslaught of October 7, 2023.

Some 20 congregants, including the synagogue rabbi, were picked up by an Israel Prison Service (IPS) bus in Jerusalem’s Har Homa and taken to the jail, where they saw Nukhba detainees bound and lying on the ground, Channel 12 reported Sunday, citing people who were present.

The visiting congregants then had a Q&A session with prison staff before going on to lunch prepared especially for them on the prison grounds, Channel 12 said. The network did not specify when the visit took place.

The Israel Prison Service confirmed to the outlet that IPS officers accompanied a “rabbi and his entourage” for a sermon and tour of a security prison.

The IPS did not deny other details of the report, but stressed that Yaakobi had ordered that the IPS not cover the costs of the bus ride from Har Homa, Channel 12 said.

According to the network, Yaakobi’s synagogue and the Har Homa neighborhood put up signs supporting him after he was questioned in late 2024 for allegedly informing former senior West Bank police officer Avishai Muallem of a covert probe against him. Muallem, who has since been indicted, allegedly obstructed investigations into Jewish nationalist violence in a bid to curry favor with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Israel Prisons Chief Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi speaks to the Knesset National Security Committee on December 16, 2025. (Noam Moskovitz/Knesset Spokesperson)

Earlier this month, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and State Attorney Amit Aisman gave Yaakobi a three-week deadline to decide on a hearing date as they weigh indicting him for suspected ethical violations.

In response, Ben Gvir said that Yaakobi, who was previously the minister’s security secretary, deserved not an indictment but rather “the Israel Prize” for his commitment to implement the far-right minister’s policy, and “the dramatic changes he has made for the benefit of state security.”

Serving as IPS chief since January 2024, Yaakobi has overseen the implementation of Ben Gvir’s policy of drastically worsening Palestinian prisoners’ living conditions.