High Court gives government 2 weeks to specify terms for Red Cross visits to detainees

The High Court of Justice has given the government until October 11 to tell the court how it intends to enable Red Cross visits to Palestinian security prisoners held in Israeli prisons and IDF detention facilities, which have been banned for the last three years.

In a decision issued on Sunday, the court said that the government must provide an update as to whether all the necessary preparations have been completed, and said that it expected the answer to be afirmative, after it ordered Red Cross resumed back in June.

The government imposed a blanket ban on Red Cross visits to Palestinian security detainees following the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and atrocities and has never allowed them to resume.

Since that time, serious allegations of violence, abuse and unfit conditions at prisons have been made.

Reports by the Public Defender’s Office in 2024 found that Palestinian security detainees had suffered from severe and systematic violence from prison guards, deprivation of food, and medical neglect, while the High Court ruled in September 2025 that the state had failed to fulfill its legal obligations to adequately feed Palestinian security prisoners.

In June this year, the High Court ruled unanimously that the government’s policy prohibiting Red Cross visits was unlawful, and ordered it to resume such visits, although it did not provide a timeframe.

In August, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), which originally petitioned the court against the ban, filed a contempt of court motion against the government due to its failure to have the visits resume.

The motion noted that a month after the ruling, the Israel Prison Service (IPS) and its head Kobi Yaakobi issued a new, temporary ordinance regarding Red Cross visits that severely restricted the scope and frequency of such visits.

ACRI noted in particular that the new ordinance permits the Red Cross to visit just 20 prisoners per year at every detention facility.

Given that there are over 3,200 security detainees in various detention facilities, this limitation drastically reduces Red Cross visits from the number prior to October 7.

The organization added that it also exposes the detainees to possible retribution by prison authorities since any reports by the Red Cross documenting alleged abuses could far more easily be tracked to the detainees who met with the organization.

“The temporary order is inconsistent with the state’s obligations under the court ruling to enable genuine external oversight and effective visits by the Red Cross,” ACRI wrote in its contempt of court motion.

The organization added that the June ruling did not give any discretion to the Israel Prison Service as to how the ruling should be implemented.

The government in its response to the motion acknowledged the new restrictions, but said they were designed to enable the IPS to implement the ruling “in accordance with new security requirements.”

It said further that the IPS and the IDF were in contact with the Red Cross to coordinate the visits and that meetings had taken place with Red Cross officials to implement the ruling.

In response, ACRI cited a letter by the Red Cross in which it stated that it was in touch with the IPS and IDF but that prisoner visits had yet to be approved, and said further that it was “of the utmost importance” that it be afforded “free and unimpeded contact with detainees.”