BREAKING: In a unanimous ruling, Israel's Supreme Court has accepted ACRI's petition and ordered the government to restore Red Cross visits to Palestinian security detainees.
The court found the government's blanket ban violated both Israeli and international law.
For the first time in nearly three years, the roughly 9,000 Palestinian security detainees held in Israeli prisons and military facilities will receive visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) – visits that monitor detention conditions, hear complaints, and pass information to families.
Israel banned all ICRC access at the start of the war on October 7, 2023, and kept it in place for over two and a half years. Since then, harrowing testimonies have emerged of abuse, violence, and the starvation of Palestinian detainees – with no exceptions made for anyone. The government justified the ban as a security measure tied to the hostages held in Gaza, yet the ban remained in place even after the last hostage was returned in January 2026.
Throughout the war, the government made a point of disregarding Israeli and international law. But the Israel Prison Service (IPS) – the agency running Israel's prisons, under the extremist Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir – was an ignoble standout.
We hope the return of the Red Cross to Israel's prisons will finally bring some restraint to the IPS's abusive practices.
Read the petition >>> english.acri.org.il/post/repeal-th…