Palestinian security prisoner found with 11 cellphones in abdomen

A Palestinian security prisoner was found trying to smuggle 11 cellphones into Megiddo Prison in northern Israel last week, who was caught by security guards after noticing his strange behavior and later detecting the presence of foreign items.

Guards at the prison ran a magnetometer, and later took the security prisoner for subsequent X-rays tests at HaEmek Medical Center in Afula, later finding three packages containing 11 cellphones and 15 SIM cards in the prisoner’s lower abdomen, according to the Israel Prison Service (ISP).

The authorities later noted that the phones were “intended to direct terrorist activities outside the prison walls,” hidden in the abdomen of an unnamed suspect that is associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, the largest party in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Following the discovery, the security prisoner was placed in solitary confinement. Responding to the incident, ISP noted they “[emphasize] that attempts to smuggle equipment and cell phones among security detainees, who are arrested for minor offenses by security forces, are continuous. The detainees risk their lives by carrying packages inside their bodies, which in most cases can cause medical complications that result in death.”

The smuggling of contraband items, including cellphones, has been a persistent concern for the ISP. In November 2018, Israel Border Police arrested a young Palestinian for attempting to smuggle eight cellphones, five phone keyboards, 19 SIM cards and a memory card into Ofer military prison.

In some cases, smuggling attempt plans have been sophisticated, including one incident in October 2018 whereby residents of the central Israel town of Lod were caught using a drone to deliver contraband to Palestinian security prisoners.

Similarly, Basel Ghattas, a former MK from the Arab nationalist Balad Party, was caught in December 2017 on video visiting Ketziot Prison, some 70 km (43. 46 mi) southwest of Beersheba, attempting to smuggle cellphones to Walid Daka, a Palestinian serving a life sentence for killing 19-year-old soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984, and to Bassel Basra, serving a 15-year sentence for security offenses. Ghattas was sentenced to a 2-year prison sentence, and released in May 2019.

The ISP has also resorted to blocking cellphone signals in prison wings, in order to prevent communication between convicted Palestinian terrorists and associates in Gaza and elsewhere.