Israel Considers Release of 120 Prisoners Due to Overcrowding in Prisons | News

Channel 13 Israel said that the occupation authorities are considering releasing 120 security prisoners from Gaza to make room in Israeli prisons.

The channel explained that the release of the aforementioned number comes to make room for the arrest of a similar number in Israeli prisons, which suffer from severe overcrowding.

In turn, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir quickly rejected, via the X platform, the Israeli army’s proposal to release those he described as “terrorists” from army detention facilities and return them to Gaza, and considered it an “unfortunate and unacceptable” idea.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation (official) reported last Sunday that the Israeli army and the Internal Security Agency (Shin Bet) were forced to cancel about 20 arrests in the West Bank due to overcrowding in prisons.

The authority added that in view of the increasing pressure on detention centers, the Israeli security services are assessing the extent of the danger of the detainees, and releasing some administrative detainees after the end of their detention period.

In light of the overcrowding of Israeli prison cells, due to the widespread arrests in the West Bank and Gaza, the Israeli Prison Service said last February that it was working to provide hundreds of places for their detention, including cafeterias and dining rooms, and did not rule out building camps, according to the Hebrew website “Calcalist”.

Extreme solutions

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir acknowledged months ago the crisis of prison overcrowding, but he proposed applying the death penalty to Palestinian prisoners whom he described as saboteurs, and considered it “the correct solution to confront the problem.”

Ben-Gvir, the leader of the far-right Jewish Power party, added in a post on his X account last April that he was happy that the Israeli government had approved his proposal to build about 1,000 additional places to detain Palestinian prisoners.

He pointed out that the additional construction of the prison service will allow the reception of more Palestinian prisoners, and will bring a partial solution to the detention crisis existing in the prison service.

Institutions specialized in prisoner affairs estimate the number of Palestinian detainees in the West Bank since October 7 at approximately 9,400. This does not include the arrests in Gaza, which are also estimated at thousands, in addition to thousands of missing persons whose fate is unknown in light of the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Strip.