The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Israel, under the leadership of its government and the extremist Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, is committing "war crimes, repressive policies, and systematic abuse against prisoners," noting that "arbitrary arrest and torture have become tools of the Israeli war against the Palestinian people."
The Foreign Ministry statement came after a video circulated showing Ben-Gvir walking among handcuffed Palestinian prisoners, saying: "There is one thing left to do, and that is to execute them."
The ministry stressed that Israeli crimes against prisoners constitute a "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions," noting that preventing visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross and depriving prisoners of family visits "constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity that warrant accountability and punishment."
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry stated in its statement that Israel is committing "criminal" practices against Palestinian prisoners in its prisons, including "torture, deprivation, deliberate medical neglect, collective punishment, and slow killing."
According to Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations, more than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, are being held in Israeli prisons, suffering from "torture, starvation and deliberate medical neglect," which has led to the death of a number of them during the past two years.
In the same context, the spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Thamin Al-Khitan, expressed the United Nations’ condemnation of the decision by Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz to ban visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross to Palestinian prisoners.
Al-Khitan said that High Commissioner Volker Türk called for respect for the decisions of the International Court of Justice, which confirmed in its latest advisory opinion Israel’s obligation to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross unrestricted access to detainees, except in exceptional cases.
He added that the commission's office demanded that the families of detainees be informed immediately of their relatives' conditions and places of detention, and that the Red Cross be enabled to have full and independent access to all Palestinian prisoners.
On October 29, Katz announced a ban on visits to thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, a move that human rights organizations considered a "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law" and an extension of Israel's policy of collective punishment against prisoners.
Since the start of the genocide in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, families of Palestinian prisoners have complained that Israel prevents them from visiting their relatives in prison. Israeli prison authorities have also prevented International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) teams from visiting Palestinian prisoners, as the ICRC has confirmed in several statements.
Attacks against Palestinian detainees increased, in parallel with the genocide in Gaza, which lasted two years, before ending with a ceasefire agreement that came into effect on October 10th.
This genocide left more than 68,000 martyrs and more than 170,000 wounded, while Israel violated the ceasefire agreement dozens of times, resulting in the killing of 211 Palestinians and the wounding of 597 others.
