‘No Red Cross visits for terrorists’ before access to Israeli hostages; 12 ministers demand of Netanyahu and Cabinet

High Court orders government to explain why ban on Red Cross visits for terrorists isn't lifted

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Twelve Israeli government ministers on Tuesday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Security Cabinet not to allow the Red Cross to visit Hamas terrorists in Israeli custody until the Israeli hostages in Gaza receive similar visits.

Israel has decided not to allow the Red Cross access to Palestinians suspected of belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization and who were captured during the current war in Gaza. At the time, the government indicated this was due to the Red Cross not attempting to visit Israeli hostages.

Following a petition filed by various Israeli human rights organizations to allow the visits, Israel’s High Court of Justice on Sunday ordered the government to explain why a blanket ban on Red Cross visits should not be lifted.

Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Strock of the Religious Zionism party and 11 other ministers wrote a letter to Netanyahu and the Cabinet on Tuesday, demanding that the policy of not allowing Red Cross visits be maintained.

“The state’s position to the High Court should be that the Red Cross will be able to visit prisoners in the security facilities only after such visits are made, including the administration of medication, to all of our abductees in the Gaza Strip, as was inscribed in the hostage deal,” the letter stated.

“It is unthinkable for the government not to make any effort, so that such an explicit and important clause in the deal will finally be fulfilled.”

The ministers who signed the letter are as follows:

From the Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit) party, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu and Negev and Galilee Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf
From the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, its chairman, Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf
From the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Health Minister Uriel Bosso, Religious Affairs Minister Michael Malchieli, and Social Affairs Minister Yaakov Margi
From the Likud party, Sports Minister Miki Zohar, Social Equality Minister May Golan, Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer, Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman and Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli

Last December, former Israeli hostage Raz Ben Ami said she would sue the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for not acting according to its mandate to visit the Israeli hostages held in Gaza and for not guaranteeing their safety or taking action to assist in their release.

Ben Ami suffers from brain tumors and needs medication, however, despite pleas from her family to the ICRC to bring her the life-saving medication, ICRC officials in Israel, Germany and the United States rejected the family’s urgent requests.

Several days later, Netanyahu told the Knesset that the Red Cross refused to give vital medicine to the hostages being held captive by Hamas operatives in Gaza.

“I met with the Red Cross; I handed them a box of medicine for some of the hostages shown here. Some of them really need it...I told a representative to take this box to Rafah; she said 'no.' It was a difficult conversation,” Netanyahu told the special Knesset session attended by families of the hostages.