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An Israeli court has temporarily blocked a plan, cooked up by far right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, to construct a moat full of crocodiles around a notoriously abusive prison that holds Palestinians.

The injunction was issued on Sunday against the transfer of crocodiles to the facility in response to a petition filed over concerns that the crocodiles would be harmed or mistreated.

Last month, Israeli officials stripped the Nile crocodile of its protected status to pave the way for Ben-Gvir’s plan to surround the Ketziot Prison and torture camp with the animals. Construction swiftly began on the moat as workers started digging the moat around one of the “special wings” inside the camp, Israeli sources said.

Ben-Gvir, who presides over Israel’s prisons as national security minister, has said that the idea was inspired by U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Alligator Alcatraz,” the immigration jail in Florida that was shuttered after reports of horrific human rights abuses.

The idea has been condemned as another racist way to torture Palestinian prisoners, who have already reportedly faced mutilation and rape by dogs trained by Israeli officials to attack Palestinians being imprisoned in torture camps.

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It was not concern over human rights abuses that has paused the plan, however. Jerusalem District Court........

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