Jarring details about the harsh detention conditions of the defendants in the case involving the smuggling of goods into the Gaza Strip were revealed at the Be’er Sheva District Court on Tuesday, where the criminal proceedings opened, and the indictments were formally read.

Before the hearing began, one of the defendants, Betzalel Zini—the brother of Shin Bet chief David Zini—raised serious allegations about his detention conditions in remarks obtained by Channel 14 News.

“The treatment is almost like that of the Nukhba terrorists,” Zini said painfully. “We don’t receive the most basic necessities; sometimes we live on a slice of bread.” He added that his most basic religious rights are being denied. “We don’t even receive Tefillin…sometimes I have to daven without a tallit and tefillin.”

Zini also raised claims of medical neglect, saying treatments and medications he requires have been withheld. He added that he receives only half the number of phone calls to which he is legally entitled—five instead of ten.

Other defendants voiced similar complaints, saying that their treatment is part of a deliberate and cruel policy.

It should be noted that the very fact that the defendants in the case were imprisoned for months before any conviction is outrageous—a situation that even drew public criticism from a Haaretz journalist.

In a sharply worded post several weeks ago, Haaretz police correspondent Josh Breiner leveled fierce criticism at the State Prosecution’s use of pre-trial detention, saying that the judicial system has effectively “forgotten” the principle of presumption of innocence and now uses imprisonment as the default option, even in cases where the defendants pose no danger to society.

Breiner cited the cases of Betzalel Zini and co-defendant Aviel Ben David—reserve soldiers with no criminal record who served hundreds of days in Gaza—to illustrate the system’s absurdity. While not minimizing the allegations against them, he questioned why they were imprisoned rather than placed under strict house arrest.

“What reason is there for Zini not to be sitting at home in Ofra under house arrest?” he wrote. “Afraid he’ll obstruct the investigation? Confiscate his phones, assign supervisors, cut off his internet. Why should a man with no criminal record, who served in reserves, contributed to the state, and paid taxes—even if he sinned—be sitting in prison now? There’s no reason.”

He also presented data showing that thousands of defendants are currently detained after indictment—some indefinitely and others until the end of proceedings. He added that prisons are overcrowded, the conditions are harsh, and “the experience of detention is terrible and horrific—it must be the exception, not the rule.”

Breiner asserted that alternatives to detention should be preferred: house arrest, supervision, financial guarantees, license suspensions, no-contact orders, or electronic monitoring. “Only those who are truly dangerous should be imprisoned before conviction,” he wrote, emphasizing that the presumption of innocence must carry real meaning.

He concluded that the balance between public safety and individual liberty must be reevaluated. “The State Prosecution and the courts must move toward a dramatic reform in incarceration policy and what is known as ‘detention until the end of proceedings.’”

The fact that a Haaretz journalist used Zini, a “far-right settler of the Shomron,” as an example of the State Prosecution’s abuse underscores the intensity of his concern about the issue.

Another factor that Breiner failed to mention is the suffering caused to families by suspects’ prolonged imprisonment before conviction. Zini is a husband and father of seven.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)