Israeli Court Restores Red Cross Access to Palestinian Prisoners

Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that authorities must resume allowing visits to Palestinian prisoners by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), granting a petition brought by several Israeli human rights organisations challenging the ban imposed at the start of the Gaza war.

The ban had severely limited independent monitoring of conditions in Palestinian detention facilities. Human rights groups have previously documented cases of ill-treatment, inadequate healthcare and food shortages.

ICRC spokesperson Patrick Griffiths confirmed that the organisation had taken note of the ruling and was ready to resume visits to detainees in both prison and military detention facilities.

According to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the court found that the ban was not sufficiently grounded in either Israeli law or the country's international humanitarian obligations. The Israeli state had argued on security grounds that visits should remain suspended until all hostages taken in the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack had been returned.

Since the outbreak of the war, Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. According to Addameer, more than 9,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, more than 3,000 of them without charge.

(reuters, max)