Ofer Prison ( he, כלא עופר, ''Kele Ofer''), formerly officially known as Incarceration Facility 385 (), is an Israeli incarceration facility ( ''mitkan kli'a'', abbr. ''Matak'') located in the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, between

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ar, رام الله, , God's Height) is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank that serves as the ''de facto'' administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusale ...

/ Beituniya and

Giv'at Ze'ev Giv'at Ze'ev ( he, גִּבְעַת זְאֵב) is an urban Israeli settlement'An Is ...

. It is one of three facilities of the same nature, including the

Megiddo Megiddo may refer to: Places and sites in Israel * Tel Megiddo, site of an ancient city in Israel's Jezreel valley * Megiddo Airport, a domestic airport in Israel * Megiddo church (Israel) * Megiddo, Israel, a kibbutz in Israel * Megiddo Junction, ...

and Ktzi'ot prisons, the latter two located in Israel and not in the West Bank. Ofer Prison is run by the

Israel Prison Service Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and like the other two facilities, used to be operated by the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

' Military Police Corps. When under IDF control, it was capable of holding up to 800 prisoners, both tried and those under

administrative detention Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...

. As of September 2016, it holds about 1,250 Palestinian prisoners.

History

Camp Ofer was founded in December 1968, at the location of a former

Jordanian Army The Royal Jordanian Army (Arabic: القوّات البرية الاردنيّة; ) is the ground force branch of the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF). It draws its origins from units such as the Arab Legion, formed in the British Mandate of Transj ...

base from before the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...

. It was named after

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

Zvi Ofer, the commander of the Haruv Reconnaissance Unit, who was killed in action earlier in the same year. The prison was built in the base in 1988, after the onset of the

First Intifada The First Intifada, or First Palestinian Intifada (also known simply as the intifada or intifadah),The word ''intifada'' () is an Arabic word meaning "uprising". Its strict Arabic transliteration is '. was a sustained series of Palestinian ...

. Following the

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993;

, and the numerous prisoner releases of 1995, Ofer's remaining prisoners and detainees were moved to Megiddo Prison, and Ofer was closed. It was finally officially re-opened on March 29, 2002, as part of

Operation Defensive Shield Operation "Defensive Shield" ( he, מִבְצָע חוֹמַת מָגֵן, ''Mivtza Homat Magen'', literally "Operation Shield Wall") was a large-scale military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces in 2002 during the Second Intifada ...

. Its full construction was set to be completed on August 10, 2002. On October 3, 2006, control of Ofer Prison was moved to the

, making it the last incarceration facility for Palestinians to be moved to the IPS (although two detention centers in the West Bank are still controlled by the Military Police Corps).

Human Rights abuses

Non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s such has

Machsom Watch Machsom Watch, or Checkpoint Watch, is a group of Israeli women who monitor and document the conduct of soldiers and policemen at checkpoints in the West Bank. A delegation of British MPs visiting the facilities alleged human rights abuses: Arguably more concerning observations were made by a delegation of leading British lawyers who also visited the facilities and observed the use of iron shackles on children, which they considered to be in breach of Article 40 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Standard Minimum Rules.Sedley, S., Scotland, P., Oldham, F., Hildyard, M., Khan, J., Harrill, J., Lanchin, J., Davies, G., & Mason, M. ''Children in Military Custody'', 2012 at 23 and 30. (Available a
www.childreninmilitarycustody.org
)

Staff

As of 2006, Ofer Prison is staffed by the Israel Prison Service, which took control of it in 2006. The staff consists of jailors and officers, as well as a contingent of IPS's special unit,

Rapid Response Unit (Keter) The Rapid Response Unit (URNA) ('' cs, Útvar rychlého nasazení'') is a special force of the Police of the Czech Republic ('' cs, Policie České republiky''). It is under command of the Ministry of the Interior. History In 1981, the Útvar ...

, and interrogators from the Shabak. Before IPS, the prison was run by the IDF's Military Police Corps. The staff included soldiers who completed the Palestinian detainees' jailors ( he, מטפלי עצורי השטחים, ''Metaplei Atzurei HaShtahim'') course, including the Company for Special Tasks (abbr. ''Palmam''). The prison as a whole was a

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

-level unit, commanded by a lieutenant colonel.

Commanders

Ofer Prison is headed by Colonel Eran Fire.

References

{{coord, 31, 52, 32.39, N, 35, 10, 57.67, E, display=title Israel Defense Forces Prisons in the West Bank Judea and Samaria Area