Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir published a video showing him standing in front of a line of Palestinian prisoners lying on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs; he points at them, boasts about torturing them, and explicitly calls for their execution. In the clip Ben Gvir says: “These men came from an elite unit to kill our children, women and infants. Look at them today getting the bare minimum of life. But there is still something that must be done: execute the terrorists.”

Israeli War Minister Yisrael Katz signed an order banning representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross from visiting hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held under Israel’s “Illegal Combatants Detention Law of 2002,” whose names appear in a secret list attached as an annex. The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported that this secret list contains the names of thousands of detainees, and that the ban will apply to any prisoner classified as an “illegal combatant.”

An “illegal combatant” is every Palestinian detainee arrested by the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip and its vicinity since October 7, 2023. The number of “illegal combatants” reached 2,454 Palestinians as of last July, and they are reportedly subjected to systematic torture that includes severe beatings, starvation, medical neglect, and brutal methods, according to testimonies obtained by Palestinian lawyers.