Thanks to intervention by HaMoked, women from the West Bank whose registered address is in the Gaza Strip will be able to visit their sons in jail and return home: After the visits themselves were approved, the wardens threatened to send the women back to Gaza on buses. In subsequent visits they retracted this threat following a letter from the Legal Advisor for the West Bank

On 7 May 2006, HaMoked petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ) due to the failure by the military to observe its commitment to the HCJ to process applications to visit imprisoned relatives submitted by residents of the Territories who live in the West Bank, but whose registered address is in the Gaza Strip. In the petition HaMoked argued that the registered address of the plaintiffs is immaterial. The military bears an obligation to realize the right to visit relatives in incarceration facilities – a basic right both of the detainees and of their relatives. 

In its response, the state attached a procedure dated 26 June 2006 for processing applications to visit prisoners and detainees. The procedure states that applications from these women to visit prison are to be submitted through the Red Cross in the West Bank, which will forward them to the Civil Administration in a separate list. The Civil Administration officials will process the applications in the same manner as they process applications from residents of the West Bank registered as such, and the permits issued will be identical to those issued for residents of the Gaza Strip by the Gaza DCO. 

Complaints received by HaMoked revealed that at the end of prison visits, two women were informed that they must board a bus heading for the Gaza Strip. The women explained that they live in the West Bank and arrived from there for the visit, but the wardens threatened them, telling them that unless they changed their registered address they would be placed on a bus to the Gaza Strip the next time they visited prison. 

On 22 January 2007, following a request for clarification by HaMoked, the Legal Advisor for the West Bank emphasized to the Israel Prison Service that these women are to be permitted to return to their homes in the West Bank. The advisor stressed that the established procedure must be followed. 

Read the petition dated 7 May 2006 (Hebrew) 

Read the procedure dated 26 June 2006 (Hebrew) 

Read the notification of the Legal Advisor for the West Bank dated 22 January 2007 (Hebrew)