Israel's supreme court has issued a ruling that effectively overturns a ban on members of the International Committee for the Red Cross visiting Palestinians held in the country's jails.
The court said that the reasoning for the ban was no longer valid in view of the return of all hostages from the Gaza Strip. Although the Israeli army recovered the body of the last remaining hostage in January, the ICRC remained barred from visiting detainees.
The court had ruled in October that the ban on ICRC prison visits, imposed at the start of the war in Gaza in 2023, would remain in place “in order to return all the abducted and fallen to Israel” – referring to the hostages seized by Hamas during the October 7 attacks that led to the conflict.
That ruling, seen by The National, was issued after Hamas had returned all living hostages, but not the bodies of those who had died, under the terms of a ceasefire that began in October last year.
The ban on Red Cross visits left more than 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli detention with no way to report on their health and the conditions of their incarceration.
Many former detainees have reported inhumane treatment in Israeli custody, including restrictions on clean water and bedding that led to the spread of scabies. Others said they were assaulted, rights groups say.
The Red Cross was also able to check whether Palestinians reported missing by their families had been detained, as Israeli authorities often make arrests without notifying the detainee’s relatives.
The number of Palestinian security detainees in Israeli prisons almost doubled from about 5,200 to more than 10,000 after Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza and conducted raids of towns and refugee camps in the occupied West Bank in search of suspected militants.
The supreme court's latest ruling follows a petition filed by the Association for Human Rights – Israel (Acri) in February, calling for the ban to be lifted.
Speaking on behalf of the court, Justice Daphne Barak-Erez said the government had submitted more than 25 requests for the ban to be extended, but did not provide a “substantive legal brief” until the morning of the final hearing. It also “failed to provide any coherent legal framework” for the ban.
“The state was given countless opportunities to explain and justify its position – but these were not used. The impression is that the state left it to this court to pull the chestnuts out of the fire,” Ms Barak-Erez said.
The ICRC welcomed the court's ruling.
“We take note of the decision of the court and stand ready to resume our work in visiting detainees in Israeli places of detention,” the organisation said.
“Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, ICRC access to detainees, and the ability to meet with them individually, is an obligation under international humanitarian law. We see this ruling as a positive step.”
Acri executive director Noa Sattath said his organisation will monitor compliance with the ruling and is prepared to return to court if the government fails to provide “full, unobstructed ICRC access, including direct, unsupervised meetings with individual detainees”.
