Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued orders to prepare and equip thousands of detention places in Israeli prisons to accommodate more Palestinian detainees and prisoners, in light of the escalating persecution campaign launched by the occupation against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem and the 48 regions, against the backdrop of the war on Gaza.

This came during special deliberations held by the Israeli Prime Minister in this regard with the leaders of the security services at the headquarters of the Ministry of Security in Tel Aviv, today, Sunday, following disagreements between the Israeli security services, in light of the overcrowding of cells as a result of the widespread arrest operations in the occupied West Bank and Gaza since the outbreak of the war. On the Gaza Strip on October 7th.

The statement issued by Netanyahu's office stated that estimates by the Israeli army and Shin Bet indicate that "thousands of terrorists will be arrested from Gaza and the West Bank during the year 2024." The statement pointed out that "since the outbreak of the war, about 4,000 terrorists have been arrested, most of them from the Gaza Strip, and there is an urgent need to prepare to receive more detainees and prisoners."

During the meeting at the Ministry of Security headquarters this evening, representatives of the Israeli Prisons Administration reviewed its plans to accommodate more new prisoners and detainees by providing new places in the short and medium term. According to the statement, “Netanyahu approved the plan and instructed it to be put into effect immediately.”

According to reports, the Israeli Ministry of National Security plans to add 888 places of detention in seven prisons during the coming months at the expense of public places in these prisons, such as canteens and dining rooms.

In late December, the head of the Domestic Policy Division of the National Security Council, Yossi Maimon, said in a meeting of the National Security Committee that, according to the estimates of the General Security Agency (Shin Bet) for the year 2024, there will be 6 thousand new prisoners from the West Bank and two thousand from Gaza. 

The Israeli organization Physicians for Human Rights revealed dozens of testimonies it obtained about Israeli violations of beatings, mistreatment, sexual insults, and medical neglect of Palestinian detainees since the start of the war on Gaza. It stressed that "the severe violence that was practiced on Palestinian detainees is consistent with the definition of torture under the Convention against Torture."