Israel Prison Service Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi issued a grave warning on Tuesday during a Knesset National Security Committee hearing, saying the country’s security prisons are approaching a potential flashpoint.
“The hope of the security prisoners has turned into despair. We are on the brink of an event. The war is at our doorstep,” Yaakobi told lawmakers, warning of a possible large scale confrontation inside prison facilities.
According to Yaakobi, an escalation is expected across security detention centers. “For nearly two years we have been preparing the organization for the day the prison wings ignite,” he said. “If there is a sense that the war of revival is being fought at low intensity inside the prisons, I say with certainty that we are approaching a serious incident. The Prison Service is preparing for a wide scale clash.”
Avihai Ben Hamo, head of operations at the Israel Prison Service, said there is a direct link between the atrocities carried out by terrorists on October 7 and their current behavior behind bars.
“My eye knows how to read the way they look at locks, fences and courtyards,” Ben Hamo said. “They believed they would be released and return home. Now they understand the doors have closed. They are determined to identify our security policy.”
Ben Hamo presented lawmakers with what he described as particularly troubling intelligence findings. Diagrams of prison facilities were discovered inside cells, with prisoners marking the locations of locks and the number of guards assigned to each wing.
“Last year I displayed improvised weapons seized from inmates,” he said. “Over the past year, we have found detailed diagrams of cells and wings. They marked where there is one guard and where there are two. They are observing and trying, in their imagination, to break the security system.”
He echoed the commissioner’s assessment, saying hardened terrorists grow increasingly desperate when they realize they will not be released.
“We see them preparing,” Ben Hamo said. “They will try to challenge the prison system, but we will not allow it. The war within the Prison Service is not over.”