Sourani Meets With Top Red Cross Officers

Sourani Meets With The ICRC’s Top Officers

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights' (PCHR) Director Raji Sourani met with Charlotte Lindsey Curtet, the Director of Communications and Information Management at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva, Patrick Gueissaz, the new Head of the ICRC Sub-Delegation in Gaza, and Jamila Hammami, the Deputy Head of the ICRC Sub-Delegation in Gaza.

The meeting addressed developments relevant to the conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and focused on the conclusions of the agreement which was reached recently by the Israeli jails administration and the Palestinian prisoners after the open-ended hunger strike of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, who sought to improve their conditions in Israeli jails and detention centers.

The meeting also addressed the punishment policies adopted by Israel against Palestinian prisoners, in particular policies of isolation, administrative detention, the denial of family visitation and all the other policies that are condemned at the humanitarian and legal levels, in total violation of the Third Geneva Convention, relative to the treatment of prisoners of war.

The meeting also discussed the situation of human rights in view of Israel’s ongoing closure of the Gaza Strip, and the impact of the closure on the civilian population and their living conditions, which continue to deteriorate due to the negative consequences of the closure, which prevents civilians from enjoying their economic and social rights. In this regard, it was stressed that Israel’s ongoing closure is a form of collective punishment imposed on the civilian population. Collective punishment is illegal and inhumane, and it necessarily requires active work at the international level to put an end to the closure, stop its institutionalization and to remind the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions of their obligations in this regard.

Sourani also stressed that it is important to hold continuous and fruitful meetings between the ICRC and PCHR. He noted that there is a strong relationship, which has been established for years between PCHR and ICRC. He pointed out that the ICRC monitors humanitarian law, especially instruments dealing with the provision of protection to civilians in times of war, and that the ICRC plays a humanitarian role in view of the unprecedented deterioration of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly the Gaza Strip.

ENDS

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