JERUSALEM — Israel said it had raided its prison cells after officials heard inmates making “expressions of joy” during a round of Iranian airstrikes against Israel.

“During the recent round of fighting, sounds of celebration were heard from criminal inmates who are residents of the Palestinian territories” in a prison in central Israel, the country’s prison service said Sunday.

It said the prison service’s elite “Metzada” unit had been called in to raid the cells and remove those involved.

In a video shared by the prison services, armed troops were seen storming a prison, pointing guns at inmates as they took cover on the floor of their cell. One of the men was seen lying face down as an officer bound his hands with a zip tie. Another man was blindfolded. Several men were then marched out of their cells, hunched over, with their arms tied behind their backs.

The prison service said the inmates were brought before a disciplinary tribunal and “subsequently disciplined,” without saying how.

It said the operation was carried out as part of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s “zero tolerance” policy for expressing support for Israel’s adversaries.

During a visit on Monday to Petah Tikva, the central Israeli city where four people were killed in overnight Iranian attacks, Ben Gvir reiterated that authorities will crack down on anyone making “displays of joy” over Iran’s strikes on Israel.

“There is zero tolerance on this matter. The police have arrested quite a few people, and I back them — this is precisely my policy,” Ben Gvir said.

The far-right minister referenced the “images” of prison guards entering cells with shotguns to “restore order” in the prisons.

“This is the policy I want,” he said. “Zero tolerance for displays of joy. Zero tolerance for those who support Iran. Support for Iran is support for terror, and anyone who supports terror must be detained.”

“I would like to clarify what should be obvious: There is no intention to physically harm the residents of Tehran, unlike what the murderous dictator (of Iran) is doing to the citizens of Israel,” Katz said on X.

Earlier, after Iranian strikes on Israel killed at least eight civilians, Katz had said that the residents of Tehran “will pay the price, and soon,” for the Iranian attacks on Israel.

Clarifying his comment, Katz said that Tehran residents “will have to pay the price of the dictatorship and evacuate their homes in areas where it will be necessary to strike regime targets and security infrastructure in Tehran.”

The Iranian capital has come under heavy bombardment since Israel launched its attack on the country overnight into Friday.

Israel says it has killed several high-level Iranian military commanders in those strikes, but Iranian civilians have also been caught in the assaults. At least 224 people have been killed in Iran since hostilities began Friday, the country’s health ministry said Sunday. — CNN