‘Israel’ isolates Palestinian prisoners from outside world, renewing ban on visits from their family, and ICRC

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club (PPC) has condemned the Israeli occupation’s  renewal of an order barring families from visiting Palestinian prisoners. It says the measure is part of a wider policy of isolating detainees and shielding prison authorities from scrutiny.

No oversight or accountability for Israeli occupation’s crimes against Palestinian prisoners

The order was announced by illegal settler, war criminal, and so-called Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. And it is a continuation of policies that have cut prisoners off from the outside world. According to the Club, the restrictions have created conditions in which torture, starvation, medical neglect and other abuses can continue with very little or no oversight or accountability.

The renewal came shortly after “Israel’s” Supreme Court ruled the continued denial of access to prisoners by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to be unlawful. But, despite the ruling, “Israeli” occupation authorities have continued to block ICRC visits. The PPC claims the measures reflect a broader policy of isolating prisoners from the outside world. They also limit any independent scrutiny of their treatment.

The continued barring of family, and ICRC visits, should be seen as part of a wider set of punitive measures, which have intensified since the start of “Israel’s” genocide in Gaza. Palestinian prisoners continue facing systematic torture, starvation, humiliation, deliberate medical neglect, sexual violence, enforced disappearance. And the PPC describes these human rights violations as “slow killing” of Palestinians.

‘Israel’s’ violations of international law

Conditions inside the prisons have deteriorated to unprecedented levels since October 2023. “Israeli” prisons and detention centres have now become major arenas for serious abuses against Palestinians, and the spread of infectious diseases.

Representatives of the  PPC have held meetings with ICRC teams in the occupied West Bank. They say a more public and active response is needed from the ICRC. The PPC has called on the organisation to publicly set out the obstacles preventing it from accessing prisoners, and to take steps proportionate to the scale of the situation inside the prisons.

By cutting prisoners off from their families, and preventing the ICRC from visiting them, the Israeli occupation is violating international humanitarian law, the Geneva Conventions and other protections which should be given to prisoners and detainees, the Club said.

But the ban on family and ICRC visits now form part of a wider system of abuses against Palestinian prisoners rather than being isolated violations of their rights. This is because of the continued international inaction leading to a climate of impunity.

The PPC is calling for urgent international action to end the isolation of prisoners, and restore family visits. Protection needs to be ensured, and those “Israelis” responsible for abuses must be held accountable through international justice mechanisms.

23,000 Palestinian prisoners from West Bank and Jerusalem arrested since October 2023

Arrests are one of the main tools of Israeli aggression used against Palestinians. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) recorded 630 arrests during July alone. And as of 4 August 2026, the total number arrested in the West Bank and Jerusalem, since October 2023, is more than 23,000.

The number of Palestinian prisoners in the occupation’s jails has increased by more than 80 percent since October 2023. There are now 9,400 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons. This figure includes 92 women and 370 children. The PPS says 3,198 are held without charge or trial, under what is known as “administrative detention.” Here, the detainee is not informed of the allegations against them, and the evidence presented in court is kept secret.

In December 2025, Human Rights organisation, Defense for Children International (DCIP) stated that 51 percent of the 351 minors in “Israeli” prisons, were being held under administrative detention. This is the highest number and the highest proportion on record since DCIP began monitoring the figures in 2008.

Katz has cancelled administrative detention orders against illegal West Bank settlers

During a recent Likud campaign event in Ariel settlement Israel Katz boasted about ending administrative detention for illegal Jewish settlers. As so-called defense minister, Katz is the only person permitted to sign administrative detention orders.

He said:

I cancelled on my own initiative, all administrative detention orders against settlers in the West Bank.

He claimed he did not agree with “Israelis” being held under administrative detention because it allows Israeli occupation authorities to detain them:

 Without a trial, without representation, without information and without [granting them any] rights.

But when it came to Palestinians, Katz argued:

Every incident of violence in Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank] was processed as terrorist activity. Therefore, they could hold people without a trial, without charges, without evidence, and without rights – handling and interrogating them just like terrorists.

The crowd applauded Katz, when he said:

 I called the head of the Shin Bet at the time and informed him that this [policy] was canceled….But which administrative detention orders do I sign — and many of them? I sign [administrative detention orders for] incidents of Palestinian terror.

The Israeli occupation is also detaining 1,358 additional prisoners from Gaza, classified as “unlawful combatants,” without charge or trial.

It uses detention not only as a security measure, but as a means of coercion, punishment and political control. The evidence points to a system in which the protection of basic legal rights is applied selectively. This then leaves Palestinian detainees exposed to measures that would be condemned when used against others.

Featured image via the Canary

By Charlie Jaay

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