Red Cross in secret talks with Israel to visit Palestinian security prisoners — report

The Red Cross is reportedly engaged in talks with the Israeli government in hopes its representatives will be allowed to meet with Palestinian security prisoners, Haaretz reports, after Israel banned such visits after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack.

“The International Committee of the Red Cross is holding a direct and confidential dialogue with Israeli authorities regarding its work and the issue of detention, specifically regarding the manner and conditions in which visits to detention facilities can be resumed,” the organization said in a response to the Hebrew daily.

The Prison Service’s blanket ban on Red Cross visits to Palestinian security inmates, ongoing since the October 7 invasion and massacre, has come under intense criticism from rights groups, which claim that the ban is meant to cover up alleged abuses in Israeli prisons.

Responding to a High Court petition by Israeli human rights groups demanding the Red Cross be allowed to meet security inmates, the state announced Friday it would permit the organization’s officials to visit facilities where the prisoners are held — but not actually meet them.

In its response, the state said that at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s direction, it would allow Red Cross visits to the Prison Service’s five security facilities, as well as IDF facilities where security prisoners are held, claiming that Red Cross representatives would be “impressed by the detention conditions.”

Prison officials have defended the ban, citing security concerns. In a Knesset committee meeting last year, the head of the Prison Service’s counterterrorism department claimed visits by “foreign actors” could increase tensions and lead to riots, endangering guards and wardens, without elaborating further.

The four petitioning human rights groups — the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, HaMoked and Gisha — allege that the state’s continued refusal to allow Red Cross visits is inexcusable in light of reports of widespread abuse and malnutrition of security prisoners.