Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, thousands of Palestinian residents of the oPt who are
held in prisons inside Israel and classified as “security” inmates, are kept almost entirely without contact to the outside world, including with their families. This severe violation of the right to family life is the result of Israel’s persistent refusal to allow these inmates to telephone their families, although prison visits have been suspended due to the pandemic and are not expected to resume anytime soon. Family visits from Gaza have been suspended since the start of the world health crisis, and those from the West Bank have been suspended since December 2020 and were conducted only partially beforehand, in the intervals between the lockdowns imposed in Israel. In the framework of
a court petition filed by HaMoked and other organizations in March 2020 demanding phone calls for all “security” inmates, the state committed to only
granting minors a 10-minute-long telephone call to their families once every two weeks, so long as visits are unavailable. This commitment has been
partially fulfilled.
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