Israel’s Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously struck down a government policy barring the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from visiting Palestinian detainees, ruling that the ban violated both Israeli and international law. The decision orders the state to reverse a near-three-year prohibition affecting more than 9,000 Palestinian security prisoners held in Israeli prisons and military detention centres.

Visits were suspended after the Hamas-led attack of October 2023, in which more than 1,100 people were killed and over 240 taken captive. The government then halted all prison visits and withheld information on detainees, abandoning what had been standard practice before the war. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), which co-filed the legal challenge, said it was the first time in 50 years that Israel had prevented Red Cross access.

The petition, submitted in February 2024 by ACRI together with Physicians for Human Rights, HaMoked, and the Israeli NGO Gisha, faced repeated delays. The state requested 27 extensions before a High Court hearing was finally held last October. A ceasefire agreed that month did not lead to a resumption of visits.

The ICRC said it welcomed the ruling and was ready to restart its detention work immediately. It stressed that private access to detainees is an obligation under international law. Wednesday’s decision intensifies scrutiny of detention conditions at a time when concerns over the treatment of Palestinian prisoners are mounting.

Last week, the United Nations released its annual report on conflict-related sexual violence, which documented torture, rape, gang rape and forced nudity by Israeli forces during detention and interrogation, including at the Sde Teiman military camp. The court’s ruling now reinstates a crucial humanitarian safeguard for prisoners who have been isolated from external monitoring for nearly three years.