6/21/2024–|Last updated: 6/21/202412:16 AM (Mecca time)
Israeli authorities have notified the High Court of Justice that they are working to create a mechanism that will replace Red Cross visits to Palestinian prisoners from the West Bank and Gaza held in Israel, Haaretz reported.
The newspaper explained that Red Cross visits to Palestinian prisoners have stopped since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Gaza on October 7.
In their notification to the Supreme Court, the authorities did not provide details about the alternative mechanism, but Haaretz learned that one option is to replace visits by Red Cross delegations with visits by delegations that include a judge and foreign diplomats, but they explained that it is not yet clear whether foreign diplomats will respond to this proposal.
The newspaper pointed out that the new proposal stipulates that the judge and diplomats will undertake the tasks that were carried out by the Red Cross “as an external party with the right to enter detention centers, accept complaints from the detainees concerned, and send information about them.”
The Israeli Organization for Civil Rights considered the government’s plan to be inconsistent with international law.
Last February, 4 Israeli civil rights groups submitted a petition to the Supreme Court to allow Red Cross representatives to visit Palestinian prisoners from Gaza and the West Bank held by Israel, and to provide the Red Cross with details about all these prisoners.
The petition stated that under international law, even if one party to the conflict violates its obligations under the laws of war, this does not relieve the other party of its obligations, and added, “Although Hamas holds Israeli hostages in terrible conditions, does not provide information about them, or allows the Red has decided to visit them, as Israel is still obligated to allow these visits to the Palestinian prisoners it detains.”
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, the Israeli occupation forces continue to detain more than 9,300 Palestinian prisoners inside its prisons, in conjunction with the continuation of its war on the Gaza Strip, including at least 75 female prisoners and at least 250 children.
