Israel's Ben-Gvir denies Telegraph report of being sent Hamas hostage video

Israel’s far-right national security minister denied reports that he had received video threats from Palestinian group Hamas purporting to show Israeli hostages in Gaza being tortured.

Itamar Ben-Gvir denied receiving any messages from Hamas after reports emerged in the Hebrew press that he had been apparently sent video footage of hostages being tortured in an attempt to force him to improve prison conditions for Palestinians, many of whom are facing horrific torture and abuse at the hands of Israeli authorities.

The report, first aired in British right-wing newspaper The Telegraph on Sunday, claimed that in one of the videos, Hamas members directly address Ben-Gvir in a threat to worsen treatment of the captives until Palestinian prisoners are given better conditions.

The Israeli army believes there are some 120 captives being held by Palestinian groups in Gaza, with around 30 believed to be dead.

Ben-Gvir is part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right ultra-religious coalition government and is responsible for Israel’s prisons, which are currently holding more than 9,000 Palestinians, many of whom are held without charge or trial.

Ben-Gvir has issued strict and harsh conditions in the prisons during his time as minister. Earlier this month, he boasted of reducing shower time for detainees and introducing a “minimal menu”.

He previously said that prisoners should be executed to make space if there was an issue of overcrowding.

It comes as media investigations have reported numerous testimonies from Palestinians and lawyers who said detainees are facing brutal conditions at Sde Teiman, a detention camp where inmates are blindfolded, beaten and permanently handcuffed.

Several inmates have died there and at least 27 have died in Israeli jails since October, according to a report from Israeli daily Haaretz.

Earlier this month, the Palestinian Authority's prisoners affairs minister in the West Bank said Israel was waging an abusive "war of revenge" against Palestinian detainees since the start of the Gaza war.

Accounts of alleged mistreatment including torture, rape and other sexual abuses in Israeli jails have all been denied by Israeli authorities.

The prisons are overcrowded and released detainees have said that they are deprived of meals and sanitation.

Several freed detainees have recently made headlines for their dilapidated and sick appearance on the release, often visibly malnourished.

Earlier on Monday, a scuffle broke out at the site of the Sde Teiman detention camp in the Negev desert which was converted from a military base into a prison in the wake of the war, when nine Israeli soldiers were arrested for questioning over allegations of severe abuse of a Palestinian detainee who had to be hospitalised.

A number of far-right politicians and activists broke into the site, saying that soldiers should not face arrest while the incident was condemned by members of Israel’s judiciary, who described it as an action of “sedition”.

A report published on Monday by US newspaper The Washington Post detailed harrowing testimonies of torture and abuse inflicted on Palestinian prisoners collected by former prisoners, lawyers and Israeli physicians.