Terrorist accused of raping guards is punished in jail for plan to instigate riot

Mahmoud Atallah, a Palestinian terror convict who has been charged with raping female Israeli prison guards during his incarceration, was taken into solitary confinement on Friday after the Israel Prison Service received intelligence that Atallah had sought to provoke a riot in the jail, Hebrew media reported.

According to Hebrew media, female prison guards entered Atallah’s cell, with a photo showing him handcuffed on the floor.

The reports came the same day Ynet reported an alleged settlement between the government and five women who served as prison guards and were sexually assaulted by Atallah.

The women will receive financial compensation worth millions of shekels, Ynet reported, without disclosing the exact sum. The report wasn’t otherwise confirmed.

The case dates back to 2018, when reports first surfaced of a security prisoner, Mahmoud Atallah, sexually assaulting several female soldiers serving as prison guards.

The women were alleged to have been “pimped” out to Atallah by then-prison intelligence officer Rani Basha, who assigned them to the security prisoners’ wing at the request of Atallah. Basha supposedly assigned the women to the security wing to assist in gathering intelligence.

Their case was initially closed without charges and failed to garner significant public attention until, in 2022, new allegations emerged during an investigation into a prison break at Gilboa. An appeal to reopen the case was accepted in March 2023.

Atallah is serving a life sentence for murdering a Palestinian woman suspected of collaborating with Israel in 2003.

He was later indicted on charges of sexual assault and rape in September 2024, and his criminal trial is ongoing.

Basha and then-Gilboa Prison Commander Bassem Kashkush were charged with breach of trust and failure to fulfill the duty to report, and their case is also ongoing.

According to the charges filed against him, Atallah began sexually assaulting female prison guards in 2014, repeatedly harassing them both physically and verbally. One guard, who went by the pseudonym “Hila,” said in 2022 that Atallah raped her after she was left alone with him, which was forbidden by prison protocol.

The first complaint against Atallah was filed with the police in 2017.

After initially being set to be released as part of a hostage-exchange deal in January, Atallah’s name was removed from the list. According to the Israel Hayom daily, his name is on the Shin Bet security agency’s “veto list,” meaning the organization can prevent his release in future prisoner exchanges.

As a result of the scandal, conscripted IDF soldiers no longer serve in security prisons.