Israel has moved several of its Hamas prisoners to solitary confinement, media reported yesterday three days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to make their conditions harsher.

Mr Netanyahu has said that as the Palestinian Islamist movement refused to allow Red Cross visits to Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier it has held for five years, he would cut privileges of Hamas militants in Israeli jails, such as external university courses.

“There will be no more master’s degrees in murder or doctors of terrorism,” he said. “This party is over.”