Dear friends,

Mus’ab was sixteen years old when Israeli soldiers came to arrest him from his home in the middle of the night. He told our lawyer that he was beaten in interrogation, and that the prison guards regularly beat him and all of the boys he’s held with. He complained that he was hungry all the time and suffered from a scabies skin infection as a result of the very poor hygiene in the prison. HaMoked has been working all year to address the inhumane conditions in the prisons but what most left an impression on our lawyer was his loneliness. Mus’ab had not met anyone from the outside world in his many months in detention.

Mus’ab’s situation is not unique. Thousands of Palestinian prisoners and detainees have been held for over two years completely isolated from the outside world, with no visits or phone calls or even letters allowed from their families. Parents have had no contact with their children, children with their parents, and siblings with one another. This ban applies both to those convicted of offenses, as well as those who have never been convicted, including thousands of people awaiting trial and Palestinians held in administrative detention.

This week HaMoked filed a petition to Israel’s High Court of Justice, demanding resumption of family visits to Palestinian “security” prisoners and detainees. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Public Committee Against Torture joined us in this petition. We argue that the ban on visits is clearly discriminatory (visits have resumed for other prisoners) and amounts to collective punishment of this entire population.

The families are well aware and very concerned about the severe deterioration in conditions in the prisons. This makes family visits even more important, and they enable families to follow up on any complaints and seek assistance to advance the rights of loved ones in detention.

A ceasefire agreement ended active hostilities in the Gaza Strip and has brought home all living hostages. However, the Temporary Order banning prison visits remains in force. It was most recently extended until July 2026.

“Now that the state of emergency has subsided,” said attorney Daniel Shenhar who filed the petition, “basic human rights must receive the protection they deserved from the outset. We are demanding that family visits be reinstated without delay.”

Sincerely,

Jessica Montell
Executive Director of HaMoked