Israeli minister wants death penalty for Palestinian prisoners to solve overcrowding

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has long advocated for draconian measures to be taken against Palestinians charged with security offences

There have been many reports of mistreatment of Palestinian detainees by Israeli authorities since October 7. Reuters

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Israel’s far-right national security minister has called for capital punishment against Palestinian prisoners guilty of terrorism offences.

Itamar Ben-Gvir said in a post on social media platform X that massive overcrowding in Israeli jails since the Gaza War broke out could be solved with the “much simpler solution of enacting the death penalty against terrorists”.

He has previously called for the use of the electric chair against convicted terrorists.

Capital punishment is possible in Israel’s judicial system but has only been used twice in the nation’s history and never against a Palestinian.

Mr Ben-Gvir, whose ministerial portfolio includes policing and prisons, has long called for harsher sentences and prison conditions for Palestinians held on security charges.

Itamar Ben-Gvir is one of Israel's most prominent far-right politicians. EPA

At the beginning of his time in office he shortened the time inmates can spend showering and closed in-house bakeries run by prisoners, among other measures.

His renewed demand on Tuesday for the death penalty came after the government was rocked by the highly controversial release of the director of Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital, where Israel and the US say some Israeli hostages were held after the October 7 attacks.

Mohammad Abu Salmiya was released along with 55 other Palestinian detainees, according to Palestinian media.

The move was slammed across Israeli politics as a risk to national security and an insult to hostages.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said the decision was a “direct continuation of the recklessness and dysfunction of [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s] government”.

The father of murdered Israeli hostage Avi Marciano slammed the move, saying “seven months after we buried her, Israel decides to release the man indirectly responsible for her murder”.

“I’m sorry, my girl, that even now you are being abandoned,” he added.

Balad party leader Sami Abu Shahadeh, a Palestinian resident of Israel, criticised the furore.

“The absurd discourse around the release of the director of [Al] Shifa Hospital is sickening and defies all logic and moral values,” he wrote on X.

“The real crime lies not in his release but in his initial arrest,” he added.

“This adds to the countless crimes committed, including the destruction of hospitals, the killing of medical staff, the denial of medicine, the starvation of sick infants, and more.”

On the prison controversy, Israel’s Kan news channel also published leaked WhatsApp messages in which Mr Ben-Gvir called for the dismissal of the chief of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar.

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The Shin Bet in turn accused the minister of significant responsibility in the matter, saying he did not respond to repeated calls by the agency to address a shortage of prison cells exacerbated by mass detentions in the Gaza war.

About 9,500 Palestinians have been detained since October 7 in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The total number of detainees from Gaza is less clear, but the Palestinians Prisoners Society estimates that about 5,000 have been detained since October 7.

Reports of terrible conditions in detention facilities and prisons are rife.

Israel’s High Court ordered in June that the state provide more details on conditions in the Sde Teiman detention centre, after human rights organisations petitioned for the facility to be closed due to alleged abuses.