Construction said to already be underway for Ben Gvir’s prison crocodile moat

A moat meant to hold crocodiles is reportedly being dug in Ketziot Prison as part of a campaign spearheaded by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to introduce the large reptile into security wings.

According to a Ynet report citing Ben Gvir’s ministry and local officials, the physical preparations began earlier today inside the southern facility, which holds detained Hamas terrorists and other Palestinian security prisoners.

“Digging [for] the crocodile moat is underway inside the prison, around one of their special wings,” a source in the Ramat Hanegev Regional Council, whose jurisdiction the prison falls within, tells the outlet.

“It’s a moat about 170 meters (560 feet) long and you can’t see it from outside the prison. No one knows if there will indeed be crocodiles there, but preparations are being made,” the source continues.

Ben Gvir’s office also confirms to the outlet that digging for the moat has already started within the jail.

“Whoever thought this was a gimmick was mistaken,” says Ben Gvir’s office in a statement. “The Prison Service is all set. The plan exists in the finest detail, from the maintenance and care of the crocodiles to the level of the crocodiles’ resting cells.”

According to the statement, the National Security Ministry has budgeted NIS 21 million ($7 million) for the construction of the trenches.

The digging began after Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman issued a ministerial decision last week to reclassify the Nile crocodile as a “tended wild animal” to allow for their presence in security facilities, flouting the opposition of her ministry’s legal counsel.

Silman’s move also encountered stringent opposition from career environmental officials in the Nature and Parks Authority, which stressed that the move has “no professional or scientific basis” and poses physical danger to guards and prisoners alike.

“The Nature and Parks Authority found no professional or scientific basis anywhere in the world for bringing crocodiles into a detention facility for use as a security measure,” the agency says in a statement to The Times of Israel.

Introducing “a large, longevous, non-native predator into the ecosystem could create numerous and varied risks to both Israel’s natural environment and the public,” it continues.

Silman defended her decision today in an interview with the 103FM radio station, saying that “we are speaking a language our enemies know.”

She claims the penitentiary system’s acute overcrowding crisis — which worsened considerably post-October 7 — necessitates crocodiles as a deterrent for security inmates.

“At the end of the day, we must remember that as a result of October 7, the number of security prisoners increased considerably, and there is a real need to reckon with means of deterrence,” the minister tells the station.

“They [Ben Gvir and prison officials] told me that there is major deterrence in the fact that crocodiles will surround the prisons,” she adds.

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