TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — In a highly rare exercise of wartime legal restraint, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled Sunday that the Israeli government has deprived Palestinian detainees of even a minimum subsistence diet and ordered authorities to increase the amount and improve the quality of food served to deprived Palestinian inmates.
Although it’s the job of the Supreme Court to advise the government of the legality of its policies, the Israeli judiciary has seldom taken issue with its actions in the 23-month Israel-Hamas war.
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, Israel has largely rejected growing international criticism of its conduct by arguing that it was doing what was necessary to defeat Hamas.
The Israeli army has detained large numbers of Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank on suspicion of militant ties. Thousands have been released from months of detention in camps and jails without charge to tell of brutal conditions, including overcrowding, scant food supplies, inadequate medical attention and scabies outbreaks.
The three-judge panel ruled unanimously that the Israeli government had a legal duty to provide Palestinian prisoners with three meals a day to ensure “a basic level of existence” and ordered authorities to fulfill that obligation.
In an unexpected decision, the court accepted the petition filed last year by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, or ACRI, and the Israeli rights group Gisha, siding with their allegations that the government’s deliberate restriction of prisoners’ food in Israeli detention facilities has caused Palestinians to suffer malnutrition and starvation during the Israel-Hamas war.
Palestinian authorities have recorded the deaths of at least 61 Palestinians in Israeli custody since the war started. In a previous case, a 17-year-old Palestinian in Israeli prison died from what doctors described as likely starvation.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, overseeing the prison system, criticized the ruling, claiming that it betrayed the interests of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. He maintained the government's policy of minimum conditions for security prisoners would continue unchanged.
Rights groups have voiced concerns about the treatment of Palestinian detainees, with ACRI urging authorities to comply with the Supreme Court's ruling, stating, “A state must not starve people.”
