In further violation of international law, Israel has renewed its ban on visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to thousands of Palestinian prisoners, just hours before the Israeli High Court of Justice was set to hear a petition challenging the policy.
The new order, signed by Defence Minister Israel Katz earlier this week, blocks humanitarian access to detainees held under the Law on the Imprisonment of Unlawful Combatants. It applies to thousands of Palestinians whose names appear on a classified annex, and continues a suspension first imposed on 7 October 2023, the day Israel launched its assault on Gaza.
Katz cited “serious harm to state security,” as his reason for blocking the ICRC mentioning that the recommendations came from Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency. The agency alleges that detainees are using ICRC personnel to relay information to armed groups—a claim that rights advocates reject as baseless and politically motivated.
The ICRC condemned the move, insisting that its work is “purely humanitarian” in nature and essential for “assessing the treatment of detainees and the conditions in which they are held,” and for helping to “restore contact between detainees and their families.”
Human rights organisations, including the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, Gisha and HaMoked, have petitioned the High Court to restore access. They argue that Israel is violating both international and domestic law by refusing to allow external monitoring and failing to provide detainee information.
“For two years, the state has been violating Israeli and international law,” ACRI stated. “The timing of Katz’s order, just before the hearing, is an attempt to sway the court and preserve a system of abuse.”
Rights groups have warned that Israel is using detainees as bargaining chips, citing growing evidence of widespread abuse, including torture, sexual violence, starvation, overcrowding and medical neglect. ACRI described the prison conditions as “a humanitarian hell.”
Testimonies from recently released Israeli hostages suggest that the abuse of Palestinian prisoners has even shaped the treatment of Israelis in Gaza. One former hostage, Bar Kuperstein, recounted being blindfolded, beaten, dragged and told by a Hamas guard: “Now you’ll feel what our prisoners go through.”
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