Ayalon Prison (), formerly known as Ramla Prison, is a maximum-security

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

located in

Ramla Ramla (), also known as Ramle (, ), is a city in the Central District of Israel. Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with significant numbers of both Jews and Arabs. The city was founded in the early 8th century CE by the Umayyad caliph S ...

, Israel. It is managed by the

Israel Prison Service The Israel Prison Service (, ''Sherut Batei HaSohar'', , ''Idārat al-Sujūn al-Isrā’īlīyyah''), known in Israel by its acronym Shabas () or IPS in English, is the state (polity), state agency responsible for overseeing prisons in Israel. It ...

. The prison was opened in 1950, and was built in the style of the

Tegart fort A Tegart fort is a type of militarized police fort constructed throughout Palestine during the British Mandatory period, initiated as a measure against the 1936–1939 Arab Revolt. Etymology The forts are named after their designer, the Irish ...

s from the British Mandate era. It is one of four high-security criminal prisons operated by the Israel Prison Service. Ayalon Prison has 625 cells divided into 15 wings, including an isolation wing for prisoners in

solitary confinement Solitary confinement (also shortened to solitary) is a form of imprisonment in which an incarcerated person lives in a single Prison cell, cell with little or no contact with other people. It is a punitive tool used within the prison system to ...

. It has an educational center with six classrooms for

primary education Primary education is the first stage of Education, formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first schools and middle s ...

and classes for

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

s and

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

. The prison also has facilities for

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, "discursive thinking", achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state, while not judging the meditat ...

sport Sport is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...

parenting Parenting or child rearing promotes and supports the physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and educational development from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the intricacies of raising a child and not exclusively for a biologica ...

, and

drug rehabilitation Drug rehabilitation is the process of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and street drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, heroin, and amphetamines. The general int ...

, in addition to eight factories which employ inmates and a radio station operated by inmates selected and trained to broadcast rehabilitative and educational content to all other prisons in Israel.

Notable inmates

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ;"Eichmann"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 19 March 1906 – 1 Ju ...

, a

Nazi German Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

official and major organizer of the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

; executed in 1962 following his capture by

Mossad The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (), popularly known as Mossad ( , ), is the national intelligence agency of the Israel, State of Israel. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with M ...

agents in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. He is one of only two people to be executed in Israel since its independence. His executioner was Ramla guard

Shalom Nagar Shalom Nagar (; 1936 or 1938 – 26 November 2024) was a Yemeni-born Israeli prison guard best known for executing Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Nagar immigrated to Israel and served in the Israel Defense Forces' Paratroopers Brigade. After ...

. *

Meir Kahane Meir David HaKohen Kahane ( ; ; born Martin David Kahane; August 1, 1932 – November 5, 1990) was an American-born Israel, Israeli Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox ordained rabbi, writer and ultra-nationalist politician. Founder of the Israeli pol ...

, was jailed there in 1980 for six months for planning armed attacks against Arabs. During his time there, he wrote his best-selling and controversial book, ''

They Must Go They Must Go is an English-language book created by Rabbi Meir Kahane in 1981 and published via Grosset & Dunlap. Plot and history The rising Arab population in Israel, a country that should be a Jewish-only to major Jewish majority country a ...

''. *

John Demjanjuk John Demjanjuk (), born Ivan Mykolaiovych Demjanjuk (), was a Trawniki and Nazi camp guard at Sobibor extermination camp, Majdanek, and Flossenbürg. Demjanjuk became the center of global media attention in the 1980s, when he was tried and ...

, a Ukrainian guard at Nazi death camps during the Holocaust; extradited from the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

in 1986 and imprisoned at Ayalon until 1993. *

Yigal Amir Yigal Amir (born May 31, 1970) is an Israeli right-wing extremist who assassinated the incumbent prime minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995, at the conclusion of a rally in Tel Aviv, Israel. At the time of the murder, he ...

, an Israeli right-wing ultranationalist who

assassinated Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

the fifth

Prime Minister of Israel The prime minister of Israel (, Hebrew abbreviations, Hebrew abbreviation: ; , ''Ra'īs al-Ḥukūma'') is the head of government and chief executive of the Israel, State of Israel. Israel is a parliamentary republic with a President of Isra ...

Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; , ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the prime minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–1977, and from 1992 until Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, his ass ...

, in 1995. * Ben Zygier (or Prisoner X), an Australian-Israeli veteran of the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

and alleged Mossad agent; imprisoned for unspecified crimes and died by suicide while in custody in December 2010. *

Yishai Schlissel Yishai Schlissel (also spelled Shlisel; ; born 10 December 1975) is a convicted Israeli murderer. He stabbed marchers during the Jerusalem gay pride parade in 2005, for which he served ten years in prison. On 30 July 2015, during the 2015 Jerusa ...

, stabbed marchers at multiple Jerusalem pride parades in 2005 and 2015. *

Thiago Ávila Thiago de Ávila e Silva Oliveira (; born 26 August 1986) is a Brazilian humanitarian and climate activist who gained international recognition as one of the participants aboard the June 2025 Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Born in 1986 in the federal ...

, Brazilian human rights activist; detained by Israel in June 2025 alongside 11 other members of the ''Madleen'', a ship which had sailed to break the

Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip The restrictions on movement and goods in Gaza imposed by Israel date to the early 1990s. After Hamas took over in 2007, Israel significantly intensified existing movement restrictions and imposed a complete blockade on the movement of good ...

. He was briefly moved to

in Ayalon after going on a dry hunger strike.

References

Prisons in Israel Buildings and structures in Ramla Buildings and structures in Central District (Israel) Execution sites {{Israel-struct-stub