Israel
Practice Relating to Rule 124. ICRC Access to Persons Deprived of Their Liberty
Israel’s Manual on the Laws of War (1998) provides that, during their captivity, prisoners are to be concentrated in internment camps and must be under Red Cross supervision.
Israel’s Manual on the Rules of Warfare (2006) states: “The prisoners must be concentrated into prisoner-of-war camps that must meet the conditions specified in the Convention and under the inspection of the Red Cross.”
The Manual on the Rules of Warfare (2006) is a second edition of the Manual on the Laws of War (1998).
In its judgment in the Mar’ab case in 2003, Israel’s High Court of Justice stated:
Even if meetings with lawyers are prevented, this does not justify the claim that the detainee is isolated from the outside world. It is sufficient to note that when the detainees are moved to the detention facility, which occurs within 48 hours of their detention during warfare, they have the right to be visited by the Red Cross, and their families are informed of their whereabouts.
In 2009, in a report on Israeli operations in Gaza between 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009 (the “Gaza Operation”, also known as “Operation Cast Lead”), Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated: “The operational order confirmed that … ICRC staff were to be provided with as much freedom of movement and activity as possible, unless imperative military necessity required its limitation.”