The nation was shocked on Monday morning after reports came out that Israel released dozens of Gazan terrorists on Monday, including the director of Shifa Hospital Mohammad Abu Salmiya (Ben-Gvir, Cabinet Ministers Demand Shin Bet Chief’s Head for Releasing Shifa’s Hostages Warden). The rest of the day saw an elaborate farce with government ministers putting the blame on the security establishment and Netanyahu pointing an accusing finger at the High Court of Justice that demanded improved conditions for the October 7 terrorists in Israeli captivity.
On Tuesday, Reshet Bet Radio reported that the main culprit in this farce, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, was not involved in the decision to release several dozen Gazans from Israeli captivity – the decision was made on a lower echelon in the Shin Bet, which decided to release 35 Gazans who were not going to be prosecuted are not with “blood on their hands.”
On Tuesday, Ronan Bar is expected to present the conclusions of his agency’s internal investigation as to why the director of Shifa Hospital, Mohammad Abu Salmiya, whom MK Avigdor Liberman called “Dr. Mengele,” was released to Gaza.
Also on Tuesday morning: Israel Hayom published a classified protocol of the discussion that was held last Thursday by the National Security Agency in the Prime Minister’s Office proving that it was the NSA that gave the directive to the Shin Bet and the IDF to draw up a list of terrorists to be released to Gaza, to enable closing down the detention facility in Sde Yemen.
The document also states that National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s representative at the hearing said: “The minister’s position is that no terrorists should be released without Cabinet approval.”
The representative of the Justice Ministry argued that if they do not evacuate the 120 terrorists held in the Sde Yemen facility by Sunday, June 30, a High Court decision is expected to be made that will prohibit the use of the facility.
Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office say that the NSA did give a directive to draw up a list but did not definitively order the release and according to them, it is not yet clear who gave the directive to carry out the release.
According to the protocol, last Thursday there was a discussion led by the NSA together with representatives of the IDF, the Shin Bet, and the Israel Prison Service, led by the head of the Internal Policy Division of the NSA Amit Aviram, titled: “Evacuation of illegal fighters from the Sde Yemen prison facility, Summary of fourth evaluation.”
The document contains four sections that prove the NSA, which is part of the Prime Minister’s Office and works under Netanyahu, gave the order to the IDF and Shin Bet to draw up a list of terrorists in preparation for the possibility that they would be released to Gaza.
The background to the request was a petition to the High Court against the conditions of the prisoners in Sde Yemen. The government decided, in light of the opinion of the Justice Ministry, that the prisoners should be removed from Sde Yemen before the High Court ruled on the matter, to avoid a ruling that would prohibit the use of the correctional facility in Sde Yemen.
Apparently, there was not enough room in IPS facilities for all the October 7 detainees, and 120 remained “homeless.” As a result, the NSA instructed to draw up a list of terrorists with a low-risk level that could be released to Gaza.
54 terrorists were released on Monday, 35 of them from the list compiled by the Shin Bet. The remaining 19 released were the responsibility of the IDF. The third section of the protocol proves that the political echelon approved the move: “The IDF representatives informed us that all 2,000 terrorists held under the responsibility of the IDF are defined as Hamas operatives and a written directive from the political echelon is required to prioritize which of them can be released.”
