Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross are expected to meet Israeli security officials at a detention facility this week as part of ongoing efforts to resume its visits to Palestinian security prisoners and detainees, an ICRC spokesperson told The Times of Israel on Monday, following a Channel 12 report on the matter.

The spokesperson clarified that the meeting will not itself constitute a renewal of the visits, after Channel 12 reported that the ICRC is expected to begin visiting prisoners in Israeli jails this week for the first time since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.

“We are continuing our dialogue with the authorities, and hope that visits — which, by definition, include meetings with detainees — will resume,” the spokesperson said.

The Israel Prison Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the wake of reports that visits will resume, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir accused the High Court of Justice of harming the deterrence capability of Israel’s security forces when, earlier this year, it ruled that the government cannot prevent the visits.

“The High Court’s directive to allow visits to the Nukhba terrorists, for the first time since October 7, constitutes direct harm to the State of Israel’s security deterrent,” Ben Gvir wrote on X, referring to Hamas’s elite fighting force.

The far-right minister also referred to human rights groups as the “enemy,” and misrepresented a quote from Supreme Court President Isaac Amit to claim that the court is biased in their favor.

“Unfortunately, the High Court consistently serves as an address for the appeals of the enemy, and as Justice Amit said to petitioners on the issue of bringing goods into Gaza, ‘this court makes itself........

© The Times of Israel