The Rakafot Wing of Ayalon Prison holds the most dangerous and brutal terrorists in the custody of the Israel Prison Service (IPS), including dozens of Nukhba and Hamas naval commando terrorists who took part in the October 7 massacre along with Radwan Force terrorists who were arrested during IDF raids in Lebanon.

A recent Kan Reshet Bet report provided a glimpse inside the walls of the underground structure, which is heavily fortified, almost like a sealed concrete vault. Each cell is equipped with smart cameras that track and monitor every detail of the prisoners’ movements.

The wing commander said. “The wing holds prisoners who took part in the massacre on October 7. The most difficult prisoners are here, who committed the most serious offenses. Most of them belong to Hamas’s Nukhba unit. Operationally, it’s defined as a tactical wing, the first wing of its kind in the Prison Service and currently being run as a pilot program. Everyone who works in this wing works anonymously: that is, with an operational name tag and a number.”

The guards of the wing are required to have “their finger on the pulse” at all times. “All the staff who work in this wing have undergone special training, primarily mental resilience training, to properly respond to the challenges in this wing—and there are plenty of them,” he said. “Every day, several times a day, there is some dilemma, some challenge that we need to resolve.”

The conditions in which the terrorists are held are “minimal, in accordance with international law.”

Prisoners remain locked in their cells 24 hours a day, except for one hour a day, when they are allowed to go “outside” to a small, fortified courtyard with concrete walls, where a bit of daylight filters through the bars.

When the guards enter the wing, they knock twice on each cell door, and the prisoners are immediately required to crouch on the floor with their hands behind their backs and their faces toward the floor.

During their one hour outside their cells, they are allowed a seven-minute shower. The inmates are forbidden from talking to each other or to the guards.

The terrorists’ entire lives take place in the wing—including meetings with lawyers and doctors and legal hearings.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)