Ombudsman to probe claims female prison guards were ‘pimped’ to Palestinian inmates

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman said Thursday his office plans to probe claims that female prison guards at Gilboa Prison were “pimped” to Palestinian terror inmates in order to keep the prisoners happy.

“The soldiers’ descriptions of what happened at the prison should ring warning bells,” Englman told students at Ariel University in the West Bank.

“What happened there must be probed,” Englman said, adding that “it’s even more problematic if the harrassed guards were soldiers in their mandatory military service.”

Englman said that he would examine the issue of having such soldiers serve in units outside the military, including “what are the tasks given to them and how protected they are.”

The Israel Defense Forces and Defense Ministry also announced plans last week to establish a special team to examine the service conditions of conscripts recruited to units outside of the military to ensure they are appropriate.

Englman’s pledge comes after bombshell remarks by Gilboa Prison warden Freddy Ben Shitrit last month, in which he alleged that female soldiers used as guards at the prison had been pressed into serving as eye candy or worse for some inmates, as a means of keeping inmates from getting out of hand.

Sheetrit made the claim during testimony before a commission of inquiry probing a recent prison break by Palestinian terror convicts.

Female soldiers first alleged in 2018 that they were forced into close contact with prisoners as sexual bargaining chips, leading to them being harassed and assaulted, but the case was closed due to a lack of evidence.

Public Security Minister Omer Barlev recently asked Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to reopen the investigation. Separately, the Israel Police last month said it would reopen the investigation into the allegations.

On Wednesday, coalition lawmakers shut down an attempt by the opposition to pass a bill that would establish a parliamentary inquiry committee to look into the claims. Most coalition lawmakers reportedly support an inquiry into the affair, but balked at allowing the opposition a legislative victory.

Ben Shitrit said in his testimony that before he arrived at the prison, prison employees had “pimped out female soldiers to fulfill some form of needs, not for professional, nor for operational purposes.”

One of the soldiers told the Walla news site that she and other guards had been sexually assaulted by an imprisoned Palestinian terrorist named Muhammad Atallah.

The guards claimed the prison’s management knew about the abuse and covered it up until media reports by Channel 20 about the affair brought it to light in June 2018.

Those reports alleged that an intelligence officer had placed female guards in the facility’s security wing at the request of the terrorist.

Channel 12 news has reported three soldiers were involved in the case.

The female soldier who came forward said that she had been ordered to accompany Atallah around the facility, which gave him opportunities to assault her, including by groping her buttocks, while her bosses turned a blind eye.

In exchange, Atallah, a powerful figure among the prisoner population, kept the facility quiet for the prison staff, according to Channel 13 news.

In an interview with Channel 12, the intelligence officer — who has not been publicly identified — denied the allegations, saying they “aren’t true” and that the female soldiers had in fact been “agents” tasked — with their full consent — with extracting information from the inmates.