Palestinian NGO accuses Israel’s Ben Gvir of revenge after prison raid video
This photograph shows construction work to widen Route 60 outside Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on February 11. — AFP pic
Sunday, 15 Feb 2026 10:27 AM MYT
RAMALLAH, Feb 15 — A Palestinian NGO has denounced what it called an Israeli act of revenge after a video showed far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir overseeing the abuse of detainees in a military prison.
Just days before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Ben Gvir held a tour of Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s Channel 7 reported.
In footage filmed on Friday and broadcast by the channel, around 20 police officers are seen storming a hallway leading to prison cells, brandishing their weapons and firing stun grenades.
They then pull five detainees from their cells, their hands tied behind their backs, forcing them face down onto the floor.
The operation took place as a bill proposing the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism awaited a final vote in the Israeli parliament.
“This is all part of ongoing displays meant to take revenge on Palestinian detainees,” Abdallah al-Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, told AFP on Saturday.
“Everything Ben Gvir and the far-right government are doing affects not only the Palestinian people and prisoners in detention camps—but it also impacts the global legal and human rights system,” he added.
Ben Gvir, known for his inflammatory rhetoric, is considered one of the most hardline members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.
“It is simply a source of pride—arriving at a prison like this, a prison for terrorists, the vilest of the vile, seeing them like this,” Ben Gvir said in the video.
“I want one more thing: to execute them—the death penalty for terrorists,” he added.
Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Saturday said the remarks were “a new war crime and a blatant challenge to international humanitarian law regarding prisoners”.
International rights groups have repeatedly warned of alleged abuse and mistreatment inflicted in Israeli prisons since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
While the death penalty exists for a small number of crimes in Israel, it has become a de facto abolitionist country, with the Nazi Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann the last person to be executed in 1962. — AFP
Sheer evil barbarous son of Baal 👿👿👿
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ReplyDeleteInternet giant Google has changed the tagline on the homepage of its Palestinian edition from "Palestinian Territories" to "Palestine".
DeleteThe change, introduced on 1 May, means google.ps, external now displays "Palestine" in Arabic and English under Google's logo.
Using the word Palestine is controversial for some. Israeli policy is that the borders of a Palestinian state are yet to be agreed.
In November, the UN gave Palestine the status of "non-member observer state".
The decision by the General Assembly was strongly opposed by Israel and the United States. Previously, Palestine only had "observer entity" status.
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