ICRC activities: Israel and the OPT – Operational update (Mar 2006) – ICRC report/Non-UN document

31-03-2006  Operational update  

ICRC activities in Israel and the occupied and autonomous territories (March 2006)

The following is an update of activities carried out by the ICRC in Israel and the occupied and autonomous territories in March 2006.

Protection

Promoting respect for the civilian population 

During the month of March special attention was paid to the Israeli military operation in Jericho central prison. Immediately after the operation, a protection team was deployed on the spot to evaluate its humanitarian consequences and relief supplies were given to the Palestinian prison authorities.

ICRC protection teams monitored the situation of people affected by the West Bank barrier. Israeli military operations in the Gaza buffer zone and the northern West Bank were monitored as well.

Monitoring conditions of detention

In Israel and the occupied and autonomous territories, the ICRC regularly visits detainees falling under its mandate in order to monitor their conditions of detention and the treatment they receive. The ICRC's observations and recommendations are submitted confidentially to the authorities in charge.

Detainees visited in Israeli places of detention

ICRC delegates visited all four Israeli interrogation centres as well as Dekel, Ma'asiahu, Hasharon, Megiddo, Shattah, Damoun, Ofek and Neve Tirza prisons. They also visited Salem, Efraim, Binyamin, Gush Etzion and Howarah provisional detention centres and Ofer military detention camp. Other visits were carried out in Akko and Hebron police stations and Magen hospital.

Detainees visited in Gaza and the West Bank

In the Gaza Strip, ICRC delegates visited Khan Younis police station.

In the West Bank, ICRC delegates visited Ramallah and Jericho central prisons and the interrogation centres run by the general intelligence (Mukhabarat), military intelligence (Istikhbarat) and preventive security services in Jericho, Ramallah, Qalqilia, Hebron and Bethlehem. Other visits were carried out in Ramallah and Bethlehem police stations.

Family visits and messages to detainees

The ICRC's family visits programme enables families from Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights to visit relatives held in Israeli places of detention. Facilitating these contacts is of primary importance to the ICRC.

In March, 13,651 persons travelled to 23 Israeli places of detention and visited over 5,756 relatives in detention.

Red Cross messages are another means of maintaining links between detainees and their families. In March the ICRC facilitated the exchange of 2,340 such messages, whose content is strictly limited to family news.

Assistance

Latest distributions in Gaza and the West Bank
During the month of March, the ICRC carried out the following assistance activities:

House destruction relief programme
Four families in the West Bank received ICRC relief kits.

H2 assistance programme
In the city of Hebron (zone H2, under Israeli control), the ICRC distributed food parcels and hygiene kits to 1,774 families particularly affected by strict closures.

Emergency assistance
Six food and hygiene parcels were distributed to vulnerable families in the West Bank.

Cooperation with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and Magen David Adom (MDA)

The ICRC and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies provided the MDA disaster management unit with technical and financial support for training its national disaster-response team.

The ICRC also provided the PRCS with technical support for its first trauma life support provider and instructor courses.

Raising awareness of the ICRC and international humanitarian law

It is the responsibility of all those involved in armed conflict to respect international humanitarian law. The ICRC supports their efforts by raising awareness of the law and of the organization's role and activities.

In March, the International Humanitarian Law Guest Lecture Series was launched with a lecture on the subject of military targets. The series, held in cooperation with the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, consists of six guest lectures given by Israeli and international experts in humanitarian law.

In addition, a presentation was given to graduate students (mid-career civil servants from various government offices) taking a diplomacy course at Tel Aviv University. The event was organized by the former director general of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In the Palestinian territories, the ICRC attended a "sharia and law" seminar at the Islamic University of Gaza and also took part in a two-day workshop on international humanitarian law held by the human rights group Al-Haq. The workshop was attended by local journalists, women and youth activists.

The ICRC also held information sessions on humanitarian law for Palestine Red Crescent staff and volunteers, families of detainees, students and locally based women's NGOs.