Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called for the Sde Teiman prison to keep its doors open to Palestinian detainees, despite overcrowding, Al Jazeera reports.

“We are overcrowded in prisons, and it is a good thing,” Ben-Gvir was quoted as saying by Israeli media outlets.

“This is not a reason to release [Palestinian detainees], that is how they are supposed to be. These are terrorists, I give them what is required by law – the minimum,” he said.

Ben-Gvir said on X that the problem was not overcrowding in the prison but the fact that the Shin Bet — Israel’s internal security service — wants “to improve the conditions of the terrorists we reduced, and if not — to release them”.

“And I say: It will not arise and will not be,” he said.

The dispute comes after reports that more than 50 Palestinian detainees, including the director of Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital Muhammad Abu Salmiya, were released by Israel yesterday due to overcrowding in the country’s prisons.

Israel’s Prison Service said that the Sde Teiman prison took in 500 Palestinian detainees last month at the request of the army.