Amid probe of leaked Sde Teiman video, Red Cross reiterates call for access to Palestinian detainees

As the IDF announces a criminal investigation into the leaking of surveillance video from the Sde Teiman detention facility, the International Committee of the Red Cross stresses that it has “repeatedly called to receive information about Palestinians held in Israeli detention facilities and to be allowed to visit those detainees.”

The leaked video purported to show soldiers severely abusing a Palestinian detainee last year.

“The purpose of visits to people who have been deprived of their liberty, and to detention facilities in general, is purely humanitarian,” says the ICRC in a Hebrew-language statement.

In response to Hamas’s refusal to allow ICRC visits to hostages for two years, Israel blocked the agency’s visits to Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

“The goal is to assess the treatment of the detainees and the conditions in which they are being held,” explains the Red Cross, “and to work together with the detaining authorities to ensure that these conditions comply with international standards, as well as to restore contact between the detainees and their families.”