Even after the Israel Prison Service (IPS) transferred 30 Hamas prisoners from Nafha Prison to other facilities, as reported by Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV on Feb. 2, there is still a feeling of unrest in those facilities in which Hamas prisoners are incarcerated. The moving of prisoners from one facility to another was attempted in the past to deal with riots that broke out in security prisons and to break the centers of power that emerged among the Palestinian prisoners.

Over the years, this method proved itself and became a routine preventive measure. Whenever a cohesive and influential leadership surfaced and began to accumulate status and power within the prison walls, its members were moved to a new environment, where they were forced to re-establish their reputations among the more veteran prisoners.

Preceding the transfer of these 30 prisoners were two incidents in which prison guards were stabbed by Hamas prisoners. The first took place in the Ketziot facility. The second occurred in Nafha Prison, which was created in 1980 near the remote Israeli town of Mitzpe Ramon in the south, in an effort to isolate the prisoners' leaders from the rest of the incarcerated population. Originally, the movement's leaders were transferred there from other prisons across the country. Now Nafha holds the most egregious offenders, sentenced to lengthy prison terms, usually life.

According to the IPS, the fact that the two incidents occurred simultaneously on Feb. 1 is proof that they were influenced and coordinated by sources outside the prison walls. The stabbing of the guards led to the worsening of conditions for all Hamas prisoners, which in turn resulted in clashes with the prison authorities. Leaders of the Hamas prisoners were put in solitary confinement, while sanctions were imposed on the other prisoners. These included the cancellation of family visits, bans on purchases at the prison canteen and transfers to other prisons. All of this was intended to shake up the balance of power between the various prison wings.