Ministers okay prison visit to October 7 Hamas terrorists by foreign monitors
Israel previously resisted pressure to allows checks on those imprisoned, as Israeli hostages not receiving Red Cross visits; Ben Gvir slams decision, says it hurts sovereignty
Members of the security cabinet okayed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal on Thursday to permit non-Israeli monitors to conduct a visit to check on imprisoned terrorists in Hamas’s Nukhba force who took part in the October 7 assault on Israel.
According to multiple reports in Hebrew media, an Israeli judge and two foreign observers will visit the jailed members of the Hamas commando unit, following claims of ill treatment, and pressure from the UK.
Israel previously resisted foreign visits to Hamas prisoners, many of whom participated in the massacres in southern Israeli communities, noting that Hamas was refusing to allow the Red Cross to visit the hostage it holds.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich strongly opposed the decision.
Following the vote in the security cabinet, Ben Gvir took to X, formerly Twitter, calling the decision wrong and saying it would harm deterrence.
“Our hostages in Gaza are treated with abuse, not care and concern for their rights,” he wrote. “These visits harm our deterrence and negotiations with Hamas, raise morale for terrorists, are likely to lead to riots in prison, and beyond that, harm Israel’s sovereignty by opening the door for international interference on other matters in the future.”
He added that “no country that respects its own sovereignty and security would allow” such an arrangement and accused the UK government of behaving as though the British Mandate were still in place.
The Nukhba force, Hamas’s commando, led the October 7 onslaught on Israel in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 253. Some were arrested by Israeli forces on or in the days following the attack while others were arrested by the IDF during its ground invasion of Gaza.
Since the beginning of the war, about 4,000 arrests of terror suspects have been made, the majority of them in Gaza.
In light of the massive number of arrests during the war, with more expected throughout the year, Netanyahu ordered prisons last month to prepare for a large inrush of inmates this year.
In January, Ktziot Prison warden Yosef Knipas told Walla that the prison system was overwhelmed with the thousands of new inmates. A state of emergency was declared in the system soon after October 7 and prisons were overcrowded with 10-12 prisoners to a cell. He added, however, that their minimal rights were still being met.
For the most part, the prisoners have not had legal representation as Israel’s public defenders have refused to represent them, and the inmates who took part on October 7 have not been allowed visitors including lawyers.
Another challenge caused by the influx of thousands of prisoners is how to bring them to justice, due to their lack of representation and because trying them all in the Israeli court system will cause a massive years-long backlog. One suggestion has been to get foreign representation, as Israel did for Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann’s trial in 1961.
