Several Israelis who survived captivity in Gaza have described in detail how they were beaten and tortured by Hamas terrorists, who told them the abuse was in retaliation for statements and actions by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir regarding Palestinian prisoners.
According to multiple accounts from released hostages, Hamas members explicitly linked their mistreatment to Ben-Gvir’s public boasts about worsening conditions for Palestinian security prisoners held in Israel. The Shin Bet security service had warned both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir that the minister’s comments were prompting increased violence by Hamas against the hostages.
The warning was delivered personally to Netanyahu toward the end of 2024, and later also to Ben-Gvir. As far as is known, Netanyahu did not instruct Ben-Gvir to stop making public statements on the issue. Former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar recommended issuing a statement to lower tensions caused by Ben-Gvir’s rhetoric, but Ben-Gvir refused, and Netanyahu did not intervene.
Hostages who were held in Gaza and later released said that their conditions worsened whenever Ben-Gvir publicly celebrated the tougher treatment of Palestinian prisoners. Some said they were beaten immediately after seeing or hearing about his remarks.
In an interview with the ynet, former hostage Segev Kalfon said, “Every time our captors saw Ben-Gvir in the media, or when there were events related to their prisoners in Israeli jails, they would beat us mercilessly.”
Kalfon described his time in captivity: “We were in a tunnel, sleeping about 300 meters from our guards. When I looked right, there was complete darkness; when I looked left, it was the same. At first, we were happy to see a light at the end of the tunnel — the beam of a flashlight. We thought it meant good news. But after Ben-Gvir spoke about what he did to their prisoners here in Israel, that light became a sign of evil coming toward us. We knew we were about to be beaten. We were terrified, pressed ourselves against the walls, and braced for it.”
Eli Sharabi, another released hostage, told the Israeli investigative program Uvda that statements by Israeli officials about the treatment of Palestinian prisoners led his Hamas captors to beat him and others.
Ben-Gvir responded to Sharabi’s comments by again publicly boasting about worsening the conditions for Palestinian prisoners. “We need to publicize this for the sake of greater deterrence and to sanctify God’s name,” he said.
He added that Sharabi, in the same interview, mentioned being beaten during Israeli Air Force bombings, suggesting there was no direct link between the attacks and the government’s prison policy. “So what, should we have stopped bombing? Should the IDF spokesperson have kept quiet?” Ben-Gvir said. “I can argue chronologically that it’s not true that Eli Sharabi was beaten because of what we did. They raped, murdered, and tortured long before we carried out the prison reforms. Unfortunately, the prime minister didn’t always let me implement these reforms — only after October 7 did he allow it.”
The Prime Minister’s Office said in response: “No comment.”