Israel's Supreme Court admits govt not giving Palestinian prisoners enough food, Ben Gvir lashes out

As the war in Gaza continues to escalate, the Supreme Court of Israel has ruled that the country’s government has failed to provide adequate food to Palestinian prisoners, which is required for basic human subsistence. The apex court went on to order authorities to improve their nutrition immediately.

The decision, which came on Sunday, was seen as one of the rarest instances when the country’s highest court ruled against the government, which is currently involved in the nearly two-year war. Since the start of the war following the October 7 surprise attack by Hamas, Israel has seized thousands of people in Gaza whom it suspects of having links to the Palestinian militant group.

Thousands have been released without charges; however, they had to face months of gruesome detention. In light of this, numerous human rights groups have documented widespread abuse in prisons and detention facilities, including insufficient food and health care, as well as poor sanitary conditions.

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In March this year, a 17-year-old Palestinian boy died at an Israeli prison, and doctors said starvation was likely the main cause of death. It is pertinent to note that the Israeli Supreme Court’s Sunday ruling came in response to a petition filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and the Israeli rights group Gisha.

In the complaint filed last year, the group alleged that a change in the food policy enacted after the war in Gaza began has caused prisoners to suffer malnutrition and starvation. Last year, Israel’s National Security Minister, who oversees the country’s prison system, Itamar Ben-Gvir, boasted that he had reduced the conditions of security prisoners to what he described as the bare minimum required by Israeli law.

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In the Sunday verdict, a panel of three justices ruled unanimously that the state is legally obliged to provide prisoners with enough food to ensure “a basic level of existence”. In the 2-1 ruling, the justices said they found “indications that the current food supply to prisoners does not sufficiently guarantee compliance with the legal standard”.

They noted that they had found “real doubts” that prisoners were eating properly, and ordered the prison service to “take steps to ensure the supply of food that allows for basic subsistence conditions in accordance with the law”.

Meanwhile, Gvir, who leads a small ultranationalist party in Israel, lashed out at the ruling, arguing that Israeli hostages in Gaza have no one to help them, Israel’s supreme court, “to our disgrace,” is defending Hamas militants. He insisted that the policy of providing prisoners with “the most minimal conditions stipulated by the law” would continue unchanged.

ACRI, on the other hand, called for the verdict to be implemented immediately. In a post on X, the group said the prison service has “turned Israeli prisons into torture camps”. “A state does not starve people,” it said. “People do not starve people – no matter what they have done.”

With inputs from the Associated Press.