Ref: 92/2023
Date: 04 September 2023
Time: 10:30 GMT

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the decision by Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, to reduce family visits for Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons to once every two months instead of per month. PCHR warns against the repercussions of this arbitrary decision on the detainees’ conditions, which is the latest punitive and inhumane measure taken by Israel’s extremist far-right government, including depriving detainees of their fundamental rights to food, water, and other necessities.

PCHR confirms that this decision violates the provisions of international humanitarian law, especially the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons, the relevant customary laws, and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners adopted by the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

Ben-Gvir’s decision issued on 27 August 2023 is supposed to take effect on Sunday, 03 September 2023, against 1600 Palestinian detainees from the West Bank, noting that there are around 5000 prisoners in Israeli prisons serving varying sentences, including dozens sentenced to life imprisonment and serving long periods in prison.

This decision came amid rising tension in the Israeli prisons, as Palestinian detainees have taken escalatory steps to protest a series of decisions and punitive measures recently taken by the Israeli Prison Service that included depriving them of bread and fresh food, reducing shower time and running water, and banning dental services. Earlier, Ben-Gvir issued an amendment to the law to revoke the early release of Palestinian detainees. This unjust decision deprives dozens of patients and elderly people, especially those serving sentences of less than ten years, of benefiting from such an advantage, noting that detainees serving high sentences are already deprived of early release.

In response to the decision to reduce family visits to detainees, the Supreme Emergency Committee of the Palestinian National Prisoner Movement announced on Sunday, 03 September, an open-ended hunger strike on Thursday 14 September 2023, unless all punitive measures and decisions against them are cancelled.

PCHR holds the occupying power fully responsible for the lives of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and warns against the deterioration of the condition of detainees, who are subjected to inhumane detention conditions and denied adequate healthcare. Therefore, PCHR:

• Urges the International Committee of the Red Cross to increase the efficiency of its follow-up of the Palestinian detainees’ conditions in Israeli prisons and their detention conditions, especially in light of the recent punitive decisions and measures.
• Demands the international community to obligate Israel to respect the rules of international law and international humanitarian law, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention, and to adhere to the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
• Urges the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to stop his hesitancy and promptly initiate an investigation into the situation of Palestine to end the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)’s crimes committed against Palestinian detainees and to end Israeli impunity.