Prison service officials doubled down Tuesday on their blanket ban on Red Cross visits to Palestinian inmates in Israeli jails, insisting to lawmakers in the Knesset that allowing the humanitarian organization into prisons poses a national security threat.

Israel halted visits to Palestinian prisoners by Red Cross officials and stopped passing information on inmates to the organization in the wake of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre.

“The entry of the Red Cross into prisons is liable to damage prison security and therefore, national security,” Netanel Shimson, the head of the Israel Prison Service’s counterterrorism department, told the Knesset National Security Committee.

Representing the agency, Shimson cautioned against allowing “foreign actors” into prisons, which he claimed “raises the potential for the transmission of negative messages.” He also implied such visits could endanger guards and wardens by upping tension inside prisons and leading to possible riots, without going into more detail.

The prison service’s blanket ban has sparked pushback from Israeli human rights organizations, which petitioned the High Court of Justice demanding the state declare the policy illegal based on the Geneva Conventions.

The case is currently being deliberated in........

© The Times of Israel