Shin Bet says lack of space to blame for release of suspects, points finger at Ben Gvir

Responding to uproar over the release of Shifa Hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya and some 50 other Palestinian detainees this morning, the Shin Bet security agency says it was forced to send prisoners back to the Gaza Strip due to a lack of space in Israeli jails and plans to phase out the use of the Sde Teiman detention facility.

The agency says a decision was made recently to only hold Palestinian detainees at Sde Teiman for short periods, and as such, the agency and the IDF were required to release dozens of detainees from prisons to make room for more significant terror suspects.

“For about a year now, the Shin Bet has been warning in every possible forum… about the incarceration crisis and the necessity to increase the number of [cells], in light of the need to arrest terrorists in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” the agency says in a statement

“The incarceration crisis leads to the cancellation of arrests of suspects involved in terror activities on a daily basis, and to a direct harm to the security of the state,” the Shin Bet continues, adding that even this past night several planned arrests of wanted Palestinians, including those planning terror attacks, were canceled.

“Unfortunately, these requests… which were forwarded to all the relevant parties, chief among them the national security minister, which is responsible for this, went unaddressed, and in practice, the number of [cells] did not increase as needed,” it says, referring to Itamar Ben Gvir.

The Shin Bet says it was against releasing West Bank Palestinian detainees, due to “immediate” fears they would return to carrying out attacks, as well as members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force and other Gazan terrorists involved in the fighting and attacking civilians.

It says that in accordance with “the state’s need as determined by the National Security Council,” it was decided to release several detainees who did not pose a significant threat. The agency says the release was carried out after “examining the perceived danger of all the detainees.”

The Shin Bet says Abu Salmiya “met all the requirements [for release] regarding the level of danger he poses,” but adds it will investigate the decision to free him.

“For lack of any other option, without an immediate solution to the prison space crisis, arrests will continue to be canceled and detainees will continue to be released,” the agency adds.