The occupation takes a new measure against "Gaza prisoners" in its jails.

The Israeli occupation's Minister of War, Yoav Gallant, issued an order preventing representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross from visiting hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in its jails.

Gallant's decision, published by the Israeli Broadcasting Authority, stated: "According to my authority, and based on the professional opinion of the General Security Service, and after being convinced that this would endanger state security, I prohibit visits by Red Cross representatives to prisoners held (Palestinians) under the Unlawful Combatants Law of 2002, whose names appear in the attached confidential list as an annex."

The Broadcasting Authority noted that "this is a confidential list containing the names of thousands of prisoners. This order will apply to any prisoner classified under the category of unlawful combatant."

The occupation defines "unlawful combatant" as any Palestinian prisoner arrested by the occupation army from the Gaza Strip and its surroundings since October 7, 2023, after fighters from the Hamas movement attacked settlements and military bases "in response to the assaults on Al-Aqsa Mosque."

The number of "unlawful combatants" reached 2,454 as of last July, according to the Israeli Prison Service, and they are subjected to systematic torture that includes severe beating, starvation, medical neglect, and brutal methods, according to testimonies obtained by Palestinian lawyers.

Last week, Jeremy Sharon, a reporter for the Zman Israel website, revealed that "Gaza prisoners arrested by the army inside the strip during the war have not been charged with any crime, nor have they been tried, and the vast majority of them have been held in complete isolation for several months, where human rights organizations and UN bodies confirmed that many of them are not connected to armed organizations at all, yet they have provided numerous testimonies about the serious violations they faced in the occupation's prisons."

He added in a report translated by "Arabi21" that "the violations focused on beating, poor health conditions, insufficient and inappropriate food, psychological torture, and their detention under the Unlawful Combatants Law in prisons and detention centers. Yuval Biton, the former head of the intelligence department in the Prison Service, estimated that based on his experience, the detainees were not directly involved in killing Israelis and did not participate in the attack on October 7, 2023."

He clarified that "up until the beginning of October 2025, there were 2,673 detainees of this type held in prison service facilities, although the organization 'Hamoked,' which provides legal assistance to detainees, estimates that there are several hundred more detainees in some military detention centers, who are held for six months according to the provisions of the Unlawful Combatants Law, which are extendable periods, and are often extended by decision of the central court judges."

He pointed out that "these extensions occur after very short discussions held with the detainees via video in front of the judge, lasting between 5-10 minutes only, without allowing them to see the evidence presented by the security forces to the judge to justify the detention, and the vast majority of them were not allowed to contact lawyers at all, and even in cases where they managed to obtain legal representation, their lawyers were not informed of the evidence, and they were held without Red Cross visits, after the government banned them immediately after the attack on October 7, and family visits were also prohibited, and detainees were not allowed to receive phone calls or messages, effectively isolating them completely from the outside world."

He explained that "the detainees who were released revealed that they were continuously subjected to severe abuse and harassment during their detention. One of them, 23 years old and working as a driver for humanitarian aid, said he was arrested at a checkpoint in Gaza in April 2024, was beaten, and forced to confess that he was a member of Hamas, then sent to the notorious military detention center, Sde Teiman, for 45 days, before being transferred to Ofer detention center, where he was taken to the 'disco room,' where he was subjected to very loud music for an hour or more, then transferred for interrogation."

He confirmed that "later, he was interrogated again and asked for details about Hamas tunnels, and he provided information about one of the tunnels he knew was near his home, denying any connection to Hamas. He developed scabies due to poor health conditions, a common phenomenon among Gaza detainees, and was unable to sleep properly for 20 days because of it. Another person said he was arrested in his home in Khan Younis, and while being beaten on the head and sustaining deep wounds, he was handcuffed, blindfolded, placed in a bus, beaten again, then transferred to Sde Teiman