Israel's Ketziot Prison crocodile moat plan condemned by rights groups

Israel's far‑right national security minister Itamar Ben‑Gvir is advancing a plan to dig a 170‑metre moat filled with Nile crocodiles around Ketziot Prison in southern Israel. The $6.3 million project would reclassify the reptiles as "tended wild animals" and surround a maximum‑security facility that holds Palestinian detainees accused of involvement with Hamas' Nukhba elite. Human‑rights organisations have denounced the scheme as "vicious" and "nonsensical." Moazzam Begg, director of CAGE International, told The Independent: "Modelling a prison on Alcatraz is nonsensical" and warned that Israel "regularly acts with impunity under the pretext of national security." The plan, inspired by the now‑closed U.S. immigration centre dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” has sparked domestic and international backlash. Critics argue the crocodile moat could amount to inhumane treatment comparable to the abusive conditions reported at the former U.S. facility.