FILE- Blindfolded Palestinians captured in the Gaza Strip in a detention facility on the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel. AP
The ban includes members of the Palestinian resistance elite forces detained in the notorious Sde Teiman prison.
According to the Defence Ministry, the decision will apply to anyone designated as an “illegal combatant.”
The order was issued under the minister’s authority and based on recommendations from the Shin Bet intelligence agency. It will block visits for thousands of Palestinian detainees whose names appear on a classified list attached to the order.
“The opinions presented to me leave no doubt that Red Cross visits to terrorists in prison would seriously harm the state’s security. The safety of the state and our citizens comes first,” Katz said in a statement released by his office.
More than 11,100 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, where they face systematic torture, starvation, and medical neglect, conditions that have led to multiple deaths, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups and media reports.
Palestinian detainee rights organisations say the number of prisoners dying inside Israeli jails has surged to unprecedented levels since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, with around 88 prisoners killed as a result of what they described as a “policy of slow execution.”
Multiple international, Palestinian, and Israeli human rights reports have documented widespread and systematic torture of Palestinian detainees.
Recently freed prisoners, released under the latest ceasefire agreement, have provided harrowing testimonies of medical negligence, starvation, the spread of scabies, and severe psychological and physical abuse, including sexual violence.
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