The decision of Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan to introduce cellphone blocking technology to high-security prisons is logical. For years, Israel's Prison Service has been fighting the smuggling of cell phones that enable Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners to transmit instructions for terror attacks from within the prison cells.
The Israel Prison Service occasionally searches prisoners' cells for phones, usually after receiving intelligence about them. One large operation took place in August 2016, when the Prison Service raided the sections where Hamas prisoners were jailed in the Nafha and Eshel prisons, transferred the prisoners to nearby facilities and conducted a thorough search for the hidden devices. The prison administration announced that in addition to finding cellular devices and SIM cards, they also uncovered instructions and directions for conducting terror attacks outside the prison.
