From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, December 16, 2025
Prisons chief warns jails ‘on brink of incident’ as Palestinian prisoners despair of being freed in deal
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Israel Prison Service Chief Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi warns that detention facilities are “on the brink of an incident” as Palestinian security prisoners lose hope of being freed in a hostage-prisoner exchange.
Speaking to the Knesset National Security Committee, the prisons chief claims that with each round of prisoner releases, “the hope they had has turned into despair.”
“Those who are with us [in prisons] today are terrorists who have demonstrated operational capabilities,” he says. “If there is a feeling that the ‘war of resistance’ is at low intensity — I don’t know what will develop in the north or south — but inside the prisons, I can say with certainty that we are on the brink of an incident.”
The Prison Service’s head of security and operations, Avichai Ben Hamo, tells the committee there has been an uptick in the number of prison blueprints found in the possession of security inmates.
“In the past year, blueprints have been seized that were drafted by prisoners,” he says, noting that such blueprints typically mark “where there are locks, where there is a prison guard” and other details relevant to a jailbreak.
The Times of Israel Community.