A Palestinian human rights organization has issued a forceful condemnation of Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir following the emergence of disturbing footage showing the orchestrated abuse of detainees at Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank. The incident, which occurred just days before Ramadan, has ignited fresh concerns about prisoner treatment in Israeli detention facilities.
Video evidence broadcast by Israel’s Channel 7 reveals approximately twenty armed police officers storming a prison corridor while discharging stun grenades and brandishing weapons. The officers subsequently extracted five bound detainees from their cells, forcing them into prone positions on the floor. The operation coincided with pending parliamentary legislation that would institute capital punishment for Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism offenses.
Abdallah al-Zaghari, director of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, characterized the incident as “systematic retaliation against Palestinian detainees” during a Saturday statement to AFP. He further asserted that the actions of Ben Gvir and Israel’s far-right government “not only target Palestinian populations and incarcerated individuals but also undermine global legal frameworks and human rights protections.”
Ben Gvir, who personally supervised the operation and appears in the footage, described the scene as “a source of pride” while advocating for capital punishment against what he termed “the vilest of the vile.” His inflammatory remarks prompted Hamas to denounce the statements as “a new war crime and blatant challenge to international humanitarian law.”
This incident occurs amid ongoing international scrutiny regarding prisoner treatment in Israeli facilities following Hamas’s October 2023 offensive. While Israel technically retains the death penalty for extreme cases, the nation has maintained de facto abolitionist status since the 1962 execution of Adolf Eichmann, making the current legislative push particularly significant.