State asks High Court for 16th extension, as it avoids justifying ban on Red Cross visits to Palestinian prisoners

The state requests for the 16th time that the High Court of Justice grant it a delay in submitting its response to a petition demanding the Red Cross be given access to Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. At the same time, the state requests for the sixth time that the court postpone a scheduled hearing on the petition.

Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and atrocities, the government halted visits by Red Cross officials to Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel, leading the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and several other human rights organizations to petition the High Court for their reinstatement.

The court in July ordered the state to justify its blanket ban on Red Cross visits, with ACRI arguing that it was a violation of international law relating to the rights of prisoners.

After the state’s latest request to postpone the proceedings, ACRI and the other petitioners request that the court issue a final decision on the petition without the state’s response or a hearing.

Failing that, ACRI asks the court to issue an interim injunction prohibiting the ban on Red Cross visits and ordering the state to provide the Red Cross with details of all Palestinian prisoners held by the IDF and in Israeli prisons.

In June, the government told the court it was devising a new mechanism to provide visitation rights for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel as an alternative to Red Cross visits, although it has not explained why it halted such visits in the first place.

ACRI rejects the idea, saying that the services of the services of the Red Cross cannot be replaced by an Israeli framework.

Hamas has refused to grant the Red Cross access to the hostages it abducted from Israel on October 7. Of the 251 it abducted that day, it continues to hold 96 in Gaza, of them 34 deemed dead by the Israeli army.