On 28 May 2008, Adalah submitted a pre-petition to the State Attorney demanding his immediate intervention to enable the families of political prisoners from the Gaza Strip to visit their relatives incarcerated in Israeli prisons. The number of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza held by Israel currently stands at approximately 900-1,000 prisoners. They have been barred from receiving family visits for around two years by a total ban imposed by the Israeli authorities in June 2006 following the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

In the pre-petition, Adalah Attorney Abeer Baker argued that completely barring Palestinian prisoners from Gaza receiving family visits violates their basic right to conduct a family life. It also makes basic conditions of life in prison very difficult, given that only the families of prisoners are allowed to bring basic items into prisons for prisoners, including clothes and shoes, and to deposit money in their personal accounts during visits. Attorney Baker emphasized that a prisoner’s right to receive visits is a part of the constitutional rights to contact with society, and in particular with the family, relatives and friends.

Adalah further contended that family visits are particularly important to Palestinian prisoners because they are the only means available to them to maintain a relationship with their families, because of the harsh restrictions imposed on them. These include being banned from taking furloughs, to be alone with their spouses, and even to have telephone conversations with their families, even in order to reassure them of their condition.

Adalah stressed that in light of current events in Gaza, including the increasing numbers of fatalities and the growing humanitarian crisis, families must be allowed to visit their loved ones to reassure them of their own safety. This is particularly so given that the purpose of the ban on family visits is collective punishment for the capture of Shalit, which is prohibited under international law.

The ICRC issued a news release on 26th of May 2008, entitled “Gaza: ICRC Calls for Immediate Resumption of Family Visits to Detainees in Israel”, in which it also called for the immediate resumption of family visits. According to Christoph Harnisch, head of the ICRC’s delegation in Israel and the occupied territories, “This measure is depriving both detainees and their relatives of an essential life line… People continue to come to our office every day to sign up for family visits in the hope that the suspension will be lifted… The lack of direct contact with their detained relatives is becoming unbearable.”