Israel: Deal Reached to Calm Tensions with Palestinian Prisoners

Facts

• Hamas-affiliated Asra Media on Friday said a deal had been reached with Israel to make life return to normal for female Palestinian prisoners who reportedly faced increasingly tough measures in the past week, some of which prisoners' rights groups confirmed have been lifted.¹
• This comes a day after a state of heightened alert with reinforced staffing levels was imposed as Israeli authorities reportedly received intelligence that prisoners were planning to harm prison staff.²
• This also follows the emergence of social media images and a video appearing to show three Iranian-made projectiles, similar to the shrapnel found in the city of Sderot after an attack from Gaza, with text on them warning: 'The female prisoners are a red line.'³
• Israeli guards have been accused of torturing, isolating, and firing tear gas and pepper spray at female Palestinian prisoners held in the Damon Prison, as well as raiding their cells and cutting off their unit's electricity.⁴
• Tensions between Palestinian prisoners and the Israel Prison Service have mounted after dozens of detainees suspected of terror offenses were transferred to solitary confinement over recent days.⁵
• The leadership body of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails vowed in January to counter the Israeli crackdown with 'insurrection and disobedience.' It threatened to start a massive hunger strike on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in late March.⁶

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²Reuters, ³Times of israel, ⁴Middle east monitor, ⁵Haaretz and ⁶The new arab.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Haaretz. Experienced Israeli officials, as well as all major Palestinian groups, know better than Itamar Ben-Gvir that his hardline approach to Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails risks further escalating violence in the Gaza Strip. Yet, he is unlikely to stop provoking Palestinians, as if confrontations in the West Bank were not enough. Netanyahu is forcing Israelis to pay for his regime's recklessness.
• Narrative B, as provided by I24news. Though Palestinian militant groups will try to use the prisoner issue by linking it with Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, Ben-Gvir had to advance these measures to ensure Israel's ability to regain control of its prisons. Palestinian prisoners had been treated with too much leeway — even celebrating the attacks in East Jerusalem from their jail cells, all at the expense of Israeli taxpayers.

Predictions