Israel has banned the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from visiting Palestinian prisoners detained under a law targeting "illegal combatants", Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday.
"The opinions presented to me leave no doubt that Red Cross visits to terrorists in prisons would seriously harm the state's security. The safety of the state and our citizens comes first," Katz said, according to a statement from his office.
The order prohibits the ICRC from visiting several thousand detainees named in a list attached to it.
In practice, the order will make law of the status quo that has prevailed since the war in Gaza started.
The ICRC says it has not been allowed to visit detainees in jail since then, save for pre-release interviews conducted under the Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange deals.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), which filed a petition to grant the ICRC access to Israeli prisons, told AFP that some of the Palestinians are held in military detention centres, and others in regular Israeli jails.
It said that before the ceasefire deal that began on October 10, the Israeli Prison Service "was holding 2,673 prisoners categorised as unlawful combatants".
It added that hundreds were released under the deal in exchange for hostages held in Gaza.
