The Supreme Court ruled that residents of Hamas-run Gaza who wish to visit their imprisoned terrorist relatives in Israel do not have an a-priori humanitarian right to do so.
A three-justice panel of the Supreme Court rejected a petition by 14 Gaza residents, relatives of terrorists jailed in Israel, who demand to be able to visit them. Until 2007, Gazans were permitted into Israel for this purpose – but this stopped when Hamas took over Gaza following bloody battles with Fatah.
“Allowing residents of Gaza to enter Israel for this purpose is not included in the framework of their basic humanitarian needs that Israel is obligated to enable today,” ruled Judges Eliezer Rivlin, Esther Chayot and Yoram Danziger.
They explained that the government and IDF have solid diplomatic and security reasons for not allowing Gazans to enter Israel, “in accordance with a ministerial committee decision” on this matter.
“It is unnecessary to emphasize that Israel’s control over the Gaza border does not provide a solution for all the security risks inherent in allowing the visits, in light of the foreseen increase in activity and movement at the crossings if the visits would be allowed, and in light of the fact that the crossings have often been a target of terrorist activities,” the judges stated.
The judges noted that the ruling does not negate terrorists’ rights to receive family visits in principle, but rather deals only with the State’s prerogative to prevent Gazans from entering Israel.