Israel’s Ben Gvir boasts of planned execution facility for Palestinian prisoners

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir boasted on Tuesday about the construction of a facility intended for the execution of Palestinian prisoners.

“In this place, the terrorists will be executed,” Ben Gvir said in a video posted on Instagram, where he has around 150,000 followers.

In the video, Ben Gvir points towards what appears to be an active construction site and says the complex will include “viewing chambers where crime victims will be able to come and watch” Palestinians being hanged.

"We are fulfilling what we promised," the minister added.

Ben Gvir also celebrated what he described as a victory over his opponents, saying those who “ridiculed” and “giggled” at his plan to execute Palestinians could now see that “this place is starting to be built”.

Earlier this year, Israel’s parliament approved a bill regulating the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted of involvement in deadly attacks.

According to the law, which was sponsored by Ben Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party, the Israel Prison Service (IPS) will be the agency in charge of the executions.

Critics have described it as another discriminatory law, arguing that it can be applied only to Palestinians and not to Israeli Jewish citizens.

Before the Knesset passed the law in March, the IPS had already begun preparing sites and personnel to carry out the executions, according to Israeli media reports.

Three IPS volunteers are reportedly expected to carry out the executions, which would be conducted by hanging within 90 days of sentencing.

Last week, Ben Gvir promised Rom Braslavski, a former Israeli soldier who Hamas held in Gaza, that he would do everything possible to allow him to execute Palestinians, after Braslavski said he wanted to kill them with his “own hands”.

Ben Gvir told Braslavski that Palestinian prisoners held under his supervision “don’t deserve to live”.

During the same interview, the minister also called for the killing of Palestinians in Gaza and their expulsion from the territory.

Ben Gvir’s comments sparked international condemnation, with German Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil calling on the European Union to sanction the minister.

“These are statements that we, as the German government, cannot accept in any way,” Klingbeil, co-leader of Germany’s Social Democratic Party, told German media on Tuesday, describing Ben Gvir’s language as “dehumanising”.

‘Another official killing mechanism’

Human rights groups have long accused Israel of pursuing a de facto policy of executing Palestinians.

In March, before the death penalty law was passed, Yuli Novak, executive director of Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, said Israel “already kills Palestinians systematically and faces no demands for accountability”.

B’Tselem has said that under Ben Gvir’s leadership, IPS detention facilities have become “a network of torture camps where inmates are subjected to continuous abuse and violence”.

The group added that the death penalty law “adds another official killing mechanism to the existing practices”.

As of June, at least 104 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli custody since 2023.