High Court annuls government ban on Red Cross visits for Palestinian security prisoners

The High Court of Justice on Wednesday unanimously ruled to annul the government’s policy prohibiting the Red Cross from visiting Palestinian security prisoners, stating that it is not supported by Israeli or international law.

The court ruled that the state failed to present a legal foundation for its blanket policy of denying the Red Cross visiting rights to prisoners, which it allowed before the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion, despite “innumerable opportunities” and extensions given by the court to the government to do so.

The court also noted that the central justification by the government for its ban was previously that the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were being denied Red Cross visits, but that this no longer applies, given that the last hostages were released in October of last year.

Therefore, the state must allow visits by Red Cross representatives to security prisoners and transmit information about their status, the court said, without mentioning a timeframe.

The decision was issued by Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg and Justice Daphne Barak Erez, the three most senior judges on the court.

The government imposed a blanket ban on Red Cross visits following the October 7 attacks, and petitions were filed by human rights groups against the decision in February 2024. The court gave the state numerous extensions during the course of the case, and previously appeared reluctant to rule on what was an explosive issue due to the ongoing captivity of the Israeli hostages.

Barak Erez, who wrote the principal opinion for the court, said explicitly that it was “hard to countenance” the situation in which Israel’s hostages were suffering from severe conditions in Gaza without access to Red Cross visits, while some of those involved in the October 7 attacks were seeking such access.

She said, however, that under the current circumstances, the court does not need to deal with this “dilemma,” although she noted that “obligations under international law stand regardless of reciprocity.”

The petitioning organizations, led by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), lamented the long-delayed decision, but expressed hope that the ruling would restrain what it said was “abuse” of prisoners at the hands of the Israel Prison Service.

“The situation in the prisons and military detention facilities is appalling. Since the beginning of the war, horrific testimonies have been received about the abuse, violence and starvation of Palestinian prisoners, without exception,” said Oded Feller, an attorney for ACRI.

“We regret that the legal process has taken so long. We hope that the return of the Red Cross to the prisons will finally lead to a curb on the abusive policies of the Prison Service,” he added.

A series of reports issued by the Public Defender’s Office and revealed in January found that Palestinian security detainees held in Israeli prisons suffer from severe and systematic violence from prison guards, deprivation of food and medical neglect, as well as unsanitary conditions that caused and exacerbated outbreaks of disease in the prisons.

The reports were made public after a year-long legal battle by the ACRI, which filed a freedom of information request to gain access to the documents, after the Justice Ministry refused to release them.

Official inspectors described the conditions in one prison they visited as “not fit to hold human beings,” and said of another that their findings showed “unnecessary and unjustified violence against prisoners” carried out “on a regular basis and on numerous occasions.”

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has authority over the Israel Prison Service and its policies, has repeatedly boasted of the harsh conditions he has imposed on Palestinian detainees and prisoners.