Israel's Ben Gvir puts photos of Gaza destruction in prisons

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has unveiled the newest addition to prisons holding Palestinians: posters displaying images of their destroyed homes.

In a video posted to Ben Gvir’s Telegram channel on Wednesday morning, the minister is seen standing in front of one of the large images, which are several metres tall and wide.

Ben Gvir can be seen gesticulating proudly towards a street full of destroyed buildings in Gaza with Palestinians standing beside the rubble.

Prisoners are reportedly forced to walk past the posters as they go for their daily yard time. Ben Gvir even claims that one of the prisoners recognised his home among the destruction.

The video was released with a caption that said the photos were being displayed so the Palestinian prisoners “understand that you don’t mess with the people of Israel”.

It is the latest move in an escalating pattern of Israeli abuse of Palestinians in its custody.

Last week, another video was released in which Ben Gvir was filmed visiting Marwan Barghouti, the most prominent Palestinian prisoner, and threatening him that Israel will “obliterate” anyone who opposes it.

Israel's Ben Gvir seen threatening Marwan Barghouti in prison in new video

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Over 10,000 Palestinian prisoners are being held in Israeli prisons, according to the watchdog Addameer, more than double the number before Israel began waging genocide in Gaza in October 2023.

Since the war began, abuse of those prisoners has grown in frequency and intensity.

Organisations that have collected the testimonies of current and former prisoners detail patterns of torture and abuse that include starvation, physical violence, sexual assault and extreme levels of mass solitary confinement. 

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), the United Nations Satellite Centre and the UNHCR's Shelter Cluster, Israel has destroyed or damaged 92 percent of housing units within Gaza, 70 percent of all structures, and left 1.3 million of Gaza's 2.2 million population in need of emergency shelter. 

Satellite footage shows how the southern Gaza cities of Rafah and Khan Younis have been levelled.

Ben Gvir ends the video pointing to the image of Gaza in ruins, saying: “This is how it should look”.