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The Israeli government is violating a judicial ruling obliging it to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to visit Palestinian detainees, Israel’s Supreme Court has announced.
The court has ordered the government to explain how it plans to resume Red Cross visits to Palestinian security prisoners after a three-year ban, giving the administration a deadline of October 11.
More than three months have passed since the court overturned the ban on visits in June,
“The operative meaning of the ruling is that the respondents are under an obligation to permit Red Cross visits to detention facilities without undue delay,” wrote supreme court president Isaac Amit, deputy president Noam Sohlberg, and justice Daphne Barak-Erez.
The order follows a petition by four human rights organisations – the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, Gisha and HaMoked – accusing the state of failing to implement the June ruling.
The government banned Red Cross visits to Israel Prison Service and Israel Defence Forces detention facilities in the wake of October 7. The June judgment required visits to resume in accordance with procedures similar to those in place before the atrocity.
Current restrictions undermine the Red Cross’s mandate under international law, including the Geneva Convention, the petitioners argued.
One justification for the original ban was that Israeli hostages held by Hamas were denied Red Cross visits. However, the ban remained in place after all the hostages were returned under the October 2025 Israel-Hamas agreement.
In the June judgment, Barak-Erez said the government had failed to establish a legal basis for the ban under either Israeli or international law.
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