Israel has begun constructing a moat around a maximum-security prison where crocodiles will be placed to deter escape attempts by Palestinian prisoners.More than €5.5 million has been allocated for the project at the Ketziot detention facility in southern Israel which houses people accused of being Hamas militants from the Nukhba elite force involved in the October 7th, 2023 attack on southern Israel.In a statement, the Israeli prison service said: “Anyone who murdered, massacred and raped and behaved like an animal deserves to be guarded by an animal just like them.” Orly Noy, chair of the B’Tselem Israeli human rights group, accused the authorities of experimenting with outrageous medieval concepts rather than implementing basic judicial fairness. “This is another grotesque example of the cannibal stage in which Israel is at right now,” she said. Environmental protection minister Idit Silman has classified the Nile crocodile as a “cultivated wild animal”, which allows the reptiles to be used by a security body. She faced opposition from officials in her ministry. Senior prison officials tour a crocodile farm at Hamat Gader in northern Israel in January in an image shared on social media “I don’t think this is a public relations stunt,” she said. “Yes, it serves as a deterrent. They have a very great fear of crocodiles. We are speaking in a language our enemies understand. Everyone can laugh if they want, but the number of terrorists has increased by thousands, while the number of prison guards has not.”The moat, being built inside the prison grounds, will be 170m long and is not visible from outside the facility.Israeli election: Is Netanyahu’s time in power coming to an end? Listen | 22:45The Israel prison service says it has drawn up a plan on the maintenance, supervision and housing of the crocodiles and prison guards have received training on guarding the site and handling the animals.The controversial move has been criticised by Israel’s Nature and Parks authority, which said crocodiles could legally be held only for education, research or public information. “We are supposed to protect them, not have them protect us,” the agency said. “The Nature and Parks authority found no professional or scientific basis anywhere in the world for bringing crocodiles into a detention facility for use as a security measure. Introducing a large, longevous, non-native predator into the ecosystem could create numerous and varied risks to both Israel’s natural environment and the public.” Ketziot, located in the Negev desert, is Israel’s largest prison and has long been used to hold Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.