Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that Palestinian prisoners have no right to social distancing protection against coronavirus.
Adalah attorney Myssana Morany, in a statement released following the ruling, slammed the court for accepting "the fiction pitched to it by Israeli authorities that Covid-19 social distancing policies - essential for everyone else - are not relevant to the Palestinian 'security prisoners' it holds behind bars".
"Israeli authorities claimed today in court that social distancing policies essential for protecting prisoners serving time for criminal charges are somehow not relevant for 'security prisoners'.
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There are more than 4,520 Palestinian prisoners, including 183 children, 43 women and 700 detainees with pre-existing medical conditions in Israeli jails, the UN experts added.
In its statement, the UN said Israel had released hundreds of Israeli prisoners due to the pandemic, but refused to release any of its Palestinian inmates.
"Under these conditions, prisoners are unable to adhere to [the] Israeli Health Ministry's social distancing guidelines for preventing the spread of Covid-19, thus endangering their safety and lives," Adalah pointed out. »