Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has issued an order instructing prisons to reduce the meal options provided to captured Hamas terrorists accused of participating in the Oct. 7 massacre of some 1,200 persons in the northwestern Negev, Ben-Gvir confirmed on Monday.
Ben-Gvir ordered outgoing Israel Prison Service Commissioner Katy Perry to stop providing meat dishes to prisoners belonging to Hamas’s elite Nukhba terror forces, Ynet reported earlier.
Nukhba commandos were one of the leading forces that infiltrated Israeli communities on the morning of Oct. 7—going on a murderous rampage and taking more than 240 hostages back to Gaza.
Some 200 Hamas terrorists were captured in Israel during the Oct. 7 invasion, and additional terrorists are being taken prisoner as the Israel Defense Forces continues its ground offensive against the Islamist organization in the Gaza Strip.
The Ynet report claimed Nukhba detainees currently receive three meals a day, including one meat-based meal on most days of the week. Options reportedly include chicken schnitzel, hot dogs and turkey breast.
“Our hostages in Gaza are suffering from hunger. We heard testimonies of [them receiving only] half a pita [a day], and here the Nukhba prisoners receive rich meals. From my perspective, they can receive the minimum that we are obligated to give them [by law],” Ynet quoted Ben-Gvir as saying.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, Ben-Gvir slammed the Prison Service for allegedly ignoring his instruction to stop dishing out meat to Nukhba prisoners.
“Anyone who ignores my explicit instruction to reduce all types of meat dishes to the Nukhba killers, and allows them a rich and meaty menu like the one shown, while our hostages in Gaza eat half a pita a day—does not deserve to stay in office one single day longer,” wrote the minister.
The Israel Prison Service responded that “the food schedule for security detainees and prisoners has been updated while providing the minimum of options required by law.”
Ben-Gvir announced last week that he would not be extending Perry’s term as commissioner, accusing her of negotiating with Hamas terrorists jailed in Israel over their prison conditions and failing in her leadership.
