Israel was unprepared to absorb the thousands of Palestinian security prisoners it has arrested since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks, according to a report published Tuesday by State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, which charged that the situation has greatly harmed the Shin Bet’s ability to detain and interrogate suspects, endangered prison guards, and led to the release of nearly 20 high-level prisoners due to apparent lack of space.

The report also said that this lack of preparedness has contributed to the fact that not a single terrorist who participated in the October 7 attacks has yet been charged and brought to justice, which Englman said is of “crucial importance, from a legal, moral and public perspective.”

While the overcrowding in Israeli prisons has led to reporting, even from Israel’s Public Defender’s Office, of widespread abuse, deprivation and neglect suffered by Palestinian prisoners and detainees, the report published Tuesday did not address prisoners’ living conditions or allegations of abuse from prison staff. Responding to a Haaretz inquiry as to why it was left out of the report, the State Comptroller’s Office said, “other angles were examined.”

“The arrest of thousands of terrorists without prior preparation exacerbated the gap in terms of the lack of space and harmed the Shin Bet’s ability to carry out arrests and interrogations, while increasing the burden and risk on Israel Prison Service staff,” the report said.

According to the report, Israel was already facing a crisis of overcrowding in its prisons, with some 16,200 prisoners being held across IPS facilities in October 2023, before the Hamas-led attacks, including some 5,200 classified as security prisoners. That number was approximately 12 percent higher than Israel’s official prison capacity.

By early 2025, the number of security prisoners rose 92% to over 10,000, the report said, adding that the total prison population jumped to over 23,400.

“Due to the large number of security prisoners who were imprisoned after the outbreak of the war, the IPS was unable to fully realize its mission as Israel’s national prison organization,” Englman said in the report.

As such, the Shin Bet’s ability to detain and........

© The Times of Israel