Israel Prison Service Chief Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi warned Tuesday that detention facilities are “on the brink” as Palestinian security prisoners have largely lost hope of being freed in a hostage-prisoner exchange, raising the specter of an outbreak of violence.

Speaking to the Knesset National Security Committee, the prisons chief said “the hope they had has turned into despair” due to not being included among the thousands of inmates released during the Gaza war in exchange for hostages held by Gaza terror groups.

With no more exchanges on the horizon, and barring abductions of more Israelis who could be released in swaps, inmates imprisoned on security charges could seek to take matters into their own hands, Yaakobi warned.

“Those who are with us [in prisons] today are terrorists who have demonstrated operational capabilities,” he said. “If there is a feeling that the ‘war of resistance’ is at low intensity — I don’t know what will develop in the north or south, but inside the prisons, I can say with certainty that we are on the brink of something happening.”

The Prison Service’s head of security and operations, Avichai Ben Hamo, told the committee that more prison diagrams were being found in the cells of security inmates.

Some of the blueprints found include locations of locks, numbers of prison guards in each wing and other details relevant to a jailbreak, he reported.

Such findings were rare, he said, when prisoners still had hope of being let go as part of a hostage deal.

“We see a direct connection between the atrocities committed by the terrorists on October 7 and [inmates’]........

© The Times of Israel