JERUSALEM: Israel has banned the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from visiting Palestinian prisoners detained under a law targeting “unlawful combatants,” the country’s defense minister said on Wednesday.
“The opinions presented to me leave no doubt that Red Cross visits to terrorists in prisons would seriously harm the state’s security. The safety of the state and our citizens comes first,” Israel Katz said, according to a statement from his office.
The order, which was issued just hours before the country’s top court had a hearing on the issue, prohibits the ICRC from visiting thousands of detainees named in a list attached to it.
In practice, the order will make law of the status quo that has prevailed since the war in Gaza started after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Under Israeli law, the category of “unlawful combatants,” introduced in 2002, allows for indefinite detention of individuals without charge in military detention centers.
