Shin Bet says release of Gaza prisoners due to lack of space, phasing out of Sde Teiman

Israel's national intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, said that the release of the Shifa hospital director along with roughly 50 other Palestinian detainees from Gaza was due to lack of space in Israeli jails and the plans to phase out the Sde Teiman detention centre.

A decision had recently been made to hold hold Palestinians in Sde Teiman for short periods, which the Shin Bet say forced them and the Israeli army to release detainees to make room for what they considered more significant suspects.

"For about a year now, the Shin Bet has been warning in every possible forum... about the incarceration crisis and the obligation to increase the number of [cells], in light of the need to arrest terrorists in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip," the agency said in a statement.

"The incarceration crisis leads to the cancellation of arrests of suspects involved in terror activities daily, and to a direct harm to the security of the state," they added, claiming that several overnight arrests of Palestinians were cancelled.

"Unfortunately, these requests... which were forwarded to all the relevant parties, chief among them the national security minister, which is responsible for this, were of no use, and in practice the number of [cells] did not increase as needed," the agency said, referring to Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

In leaked private conversations reported on Israeli media, Ben Gvir called for the dismissal of Ronen Bar, the director of Shin Bet.