The Israeli High Court of Justice approved a military decision to continue disallowing families of Palestinian detainees from Gaza, from visiting their detained loved ones.
The decision was made late on Wednesday evening and came as another official approval of a decision made by the Israeli military.
It will prevent Gaza residents from visiting their detained family members without any exception, even for ‘humanitarian reasons”.
The Court considered the decision to be based on security and political considerations.
The decision was made after the Adalah (Justice) Center, representing the families of Gaza Strip detainees, to allow them to visit their loves ones, but the court adhered to the allegations of the Israeli military and reinstated its decision preventing all visitations.
The decision comes in violation to the International Law and the Fourth Geneva Conventions.
The Israeli government previously declared that Gaza Strip as a hostile entity, an issue meant to keep the illegal siege on the Gaza Strip and also prevents internationals and West Bank Palestinian from entering the coastal region.
Israel imposed the siege on Gaza in June of 2006 in an attempt to isolate the democratically elected government of Hamas, and after the kidnapping of corporal Gilad Shalit, Israel started placing further restrictions on Gaza families trying to visit their detained family members.
In July of 2007, Israel issued an official decision preventing all visitations in addition to several restrictions on the Gaza Strip and its residents.
Attorney Abeer Baker of Adalah said that the High Court decision is considered a green light to the army to continue its violations against the residents, and is a direct violation to the International Law.
Baker added that this decision prevents nearly 1000 Gaza Strip detainees from seeing their families, and that Adalah demanded Israel to guarantee the visitation rights of the detainees as stated in the Fourth Geneva Conventions and the International Law.
Israel imprisons thousands of detainees inside its borders despite the fact that this issue also violates the international law. Even if the families were allowed visitations, they will not be granted permits to enter Israel to visit their detained family members.
Baker also said that the families usually try to bring clothes and basic supplies to the detainees, and now Israel is even preventing the families from transferring money to their detained family members so they can buy food from privatized prison canteens.
