‘Israeli’ Court Orders Proper Food for Palestinian Detainees

By Staff, Agencies

The "Israeli" entity’s so-called "Supreme Court" has said in a rare ruling that "Israel" is intentionally depriving thousands of Palestinian detainees of even a minimum amount of food for daily subsistence amid the genocidal war on Gaza.

The three-judge panel, which has so far mostly refrained from taking any action against the occupation entity or the IOF during 23 months of war on besieged and relentlessly bombarded Gaza, deliberated on the issue based on a request from two "Israeli" rights groups.

It ruled unanimously on Sunday that "Israel" had a legal duty to provide Palestinian detainees with three meals a day to ensure “a basic level of existence” and ordered authorities to fulfil that obligation.

In a two-to-one decision, the court furthermore accepted the petition filed last year by the Association for Civil Rights in "Israel" [ACRI] and Gisha, siding with their allegations that the entity’s deliberate restriction of detainees’ food in "Israeli" detention facilities has caused Palestinians to suffer malnutrition and starvation.

“We are not speaking here of comfortable living or luxury, but of the basic conditions of survival as required by law,” the ruling said. “Let us not share in the ways of our worst enemies”.

The IOF has arbitrarily detained thousands of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank during the nearly two-year war, with released detainees reporting torture, abuse, starvation, medical neglect and overcrowded, disease-ridden conditions.

ACRI, one of the two organizations that brought the case forward, said its staff were subjected to “a barrage of harassment, verbal abuse and intimidation” from senior "Israeli" officials and far-right Knesset members during the Supreme Court hearings.

“The outbursts began to seem less like a show of power and intimidation and more like lashing out in desperation,” it said in a statement in late July, when the hearings began.

Far-right minister Ben-Gvir criticized "Israel’s" Supreme Court for favoring Palestinians over captives and pledged to maintain only the minimum prison conditions for Palestinian detainees.

Last month, Ben-Gvir visited the jail cell of long-imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti and was filmed taunting him in an effort to further dishearten thousands held in "Israeli" prisons, drawing condemnation from Palestinians and rights groups.