A controversial plan by Israeli far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir to place Nile crocodiles in moats surrounding facilities holding Palestinian prisoners has been temporarily blocked by a Jerusalem District Court ruling, Israeli media has confirmed.
The scheme, which had secured backing from Ben Gvir’s own ministry and the Israel Prison Service (IPS), had already seen preliminary construction work underway: crews had begun digging trenches around a portion of Ketziot Prison, located in Israel’s Negev desert. Under the proposal, predatory Nile crocodiles would be stationed in these newly dug moats as an added security perimeter around the prison complex.
The court’s temporary injunction was issued just hours after Israeli animal welfare group Let the Animals Live filed a legal petition against the plan, naming Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman, Ben Gvir, and the IPS as respondents. Notably, the legal challenge centered exclusively on risks to the crocodiles and potential harm to prison personnel, rather than addressing the longstanding documented abuses faced by Palestinian detainees held in Israeli custody.
The pathway for Ben Gvir’s proposal was cleared earlier in July 2025, when Minister Silman issued a regulatory order reclassifying Nile crocodiles from a protected native species to a “tended animal,” removing legal barriers to their transfer and deployment at the prison site. The petition disputes this regulatory change, arguing Silman sidelined formal input from legal experts and the Nature and Parks Authority, and calling for the crocodile’s protected status to be reinstated.
In his Sunday ruling, Judge Avraham Rubin found that the claims of potential harm to the crocodiles were serious enough to warrant immediate intervention. “The claims regarding the expected harm to the crocodiles merit investigation and justify issuing an order prohibiting the transfer, or any action related to locating or preparing crocodiles for transfer,” Rubin wrote in his decision. The temporary injunction will remain in effect until a full ruling on the case, with Silman, Ben Gvir, and the IPS given until Wednesday to submit formal responses to the court.
Israeli environmental and conservation bodies have voiced opposition to the plan from its earliest stages. Both the Environmental Protection Ministry and the Nature and Parks Authority have publicly stated that Silman’s reclassification of the Nile crocodile lacks any scientific foundation, and have echoed concerns that relocating the large predators to a high-traffic prison site puts correctional staff at unnecessary risk.
The crocodile moat scheme is only the latest in a string of harsh measures pushed by Ben Gvir aimed at worsening already poor detention conditions for Palestinians held in Israeli custody. Previous proposals and implemented policies have included restrictions on family visitations, reduced food access, deliberate denial of medical care, extended solitary confinement, and reports of routine torture.
The court ruling came on the same day that video footage of Ben Gvir circulated widely on social media, showing the far-right politician mocking a female Palestinian detainee who had raised complaints about inhumane conditions inside her facility.
According to data collected by Palestinian prisoner advocacy organizations, more than 9,600 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli detention facilities as of 2025. That population includes 84 women and 350 minor children, with widespread documentation of ongoing abuses including medical neglect, physical assault, sexual violence, and rape that human rights groups characterize as systematic torture against the detainee population.