Tel Aviv [Israel], September 8 : The Israeli Supreme Court, also known as the High Court of Justice, ruled on Sunday (local time) that the state of Israel has not met its legal responsibility to adequately provide food to Palestinian security prisoners, ordering authorities to ensure that inmates receive enough nutrition to meet basic living standards, Times of Israel reported.
According to the Times of Israel, in a two-to-one decision, the court criticised the current prison conditions, marking a significant blow to the country's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has advocated for stricter treatment of security prisoners.
Judge Daphne Barak-Erez, writing the majority opinion, stated that evidence presented by both the petitioning organisations and the Israel Prison Service (IPS) raised "serious concerns" about the adequacy of food given to prisoners. She noted "indications" that the rations currently provided were insufficient, as reported by the Times of Israel.
"It must be remembered that the painful testimonies of freed [Israeli] hostages show that a stricter food regime [for Palestinian prisoners] does not improve the suffering of our kidnapped brothers who are still in distress and captivity, and even the opposite," Barak Erez wrote as quoted by Times of Israel.
The case stemmed from petitions filed in April 2024 by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Gisha legal advocacy group. They accused Ben Gvir and the IPS of deliberately reducing food provisions to below subsistence levels, effectively starving Palestinian detainees.
In contrast, Judge David Mintz dissented, saying he found the responses from the National Security Ministry and the IPS to be adequate and believed the food programme met legal requirements.
The ruling is seen as a significant legal and political setback for Ben Gvir, whose policies on prisoner treatment have drawn widespread criticism.
Ben Gvir, later, took to X and slammed the ruling, asking if the Supreme Court judges were "Israel's".
He noted that the hostages in Gaza don't have any court to protect them and that the government will provide the "imprisoned terrorist" the "minimum conditions required by law."
"Justices of the Supreme Court, are you Israel's? Our hostages in Gaza have no Supreme Court to protect them. To our shame, the murderous, kidnapping, and despicable rapist Nukhba have a Supreme Court that protects them. We will continue to provide the imprisoned terrorists in jails with the minimum conditions required by law," the National Security Minister stated.