The ICRC has taken part in the release of 165 Palestinian detainees to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
On 23 and 26 December, ICRC delegates interviewed the detainees who were to be released by the Israeli authorities in private, in order to ascertain that they agreed by their own free will to their release and the location of their release. Acting in its capacity as a neutral intermediary, the ICRC monitored on 27 December the release of these persons from Israeli detention places to the Palestinian Territories.
Under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, the ICRC has been visiting Israeli places of detention holding Palestinian detainees since 1967. These visits aim to monitor treatment and living conditions of detainees, and are a long-standing priority of the ICRC delegation in Israel, the Occupied and Autonomous Territories. The ICRC will continue to visit Palestinian detainees in all Israeli places of detention.
For more information, please contact:
Steven Anderson, ICRC Jerusalem, tel.
++972 57 7 735 235
Iyad Nasr, ICRC Gaza, tel. ++972 59 603 015
Uriel Masad, ICRC Tel Aviv, tel. ++972 52 4 681 455