The Beersheba District Court on Tuesday ordered the release to house arrest of four defendants in the wartime Gaza smuggling case - including Bezalel Zini, brother of Shin Bet chief David Zini - in a significant detention ruling that further undercut the prosecution’s most serious security theory while stopping short of collapsing the case altogether.
Judge Alon Gabizon’s ruling followed his Monday decision, in which he held that the evidentiary record against the defendants did not establish the elements of the wartime security offenses charged in the indictment - aiding the enemy during wartime and prohibited dealings in property for terror purposes.
At the same time, he found that the remaining alleged offenses, said to have been committed during wartime, could still ground detention based on dangerousness, with each defendant to be assessed according to his alleged role and personal circumstances.
In Zini’s case, Gabizon wrote that while a detention ground still exists in principle, the danger can be neutralized through full house arrest, supervision, and additional restrictions. He pointed to Zini’s clean criminal record, the fact that this is his first entanglement with the law, and his lengthy reserve service during the war.
The judge also found that because the alleged acts were committed against the backdrop of reserve duty - and because Zini is no longer currently serving - the risk of similar conduct has now “diminished to the point of nonexistence.”
The same reasoning appears in the parallel rulings for the other defendants released that day. In the protocol, Gabizon similarly notes that two of the defendants have no prior criminal record, served extensively in reserve duty, and no longer pose a realistic risk of repeating similar conduct under present circumstances.
Under the conditions imposed on Zini, he is to remain under full house arrest in Ofra under the supervision of approved guarantors, alongside a NIS 30,000 cash deposit, a NIS 50,000 personal undertaking, NIS 50,000 third-party guarantees from each supervisor, surrender of his passport, and a stay-of-exit order. The court set comparable release frameworks for the other defendants.
State requested stay of execution
Immediately after the ruling, the state requested a stay of execution. Gabizon granted a temporary delay in Zini’s case until Thursday at noon and ordered prosecutors to notify the court by Wednesday at noon whether they intended to file an appeal. The protocol reflects the same post-ruling pattern around the other release decisions as well.
The decision marks the clearest signal yet that the court is drawing a line between grave alleged wartime misconduct and the much heavier security offenses the prosecution chose to press. Gabizon did not suggest that the case is minor.
He did, however, make plain that in his view the evidentiary foundation does not support the most severe counts now anchoring the indictment - and that once those counts fall away, continued incarceration is not automatically justified.
That leaves the state with a narrower but still consequential fight. It can continue pressing the underlying criminal case, but if it wants to keep these defendants behind bars pending trial, it will now have to persuade an appellate court that Gabizon was wrong not only on the law, but on the basic proposition running through Tuesday’s rulings: that strict house arrest is enough.