The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has announced its intention to allow Palestinian prisoners to talk over the phone with their families for only one time.
The Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have been barred from receiving visits from their families and lawyers since last March as a preventive measure against coronavirus.
According to Haaretz newspaper the Israeli decision to allow Palestinian inmates to phone families came after two petitions in this regard had been filed with the Israeli high court of justice by human rights groups such as Physicians for Human Rights the Committee Against Torture and HaMoked Center for the Defense of the Individual.
The petitioners asked the IOA to allow the Palestinian prisoners to make phone and video calls with their families after jail visits were suspended.
However the IOA agreed to allow each Palestinian prisoner to have one phone call with a first-degree relative or to allow anyone of them to have another phone call if he or she became later a coronavirus patient.
Meanwhile the IOA recently allowed Israeli prisoners serving time for offenses and criminal activities to contact their families through phone and video calls after prisons were locked down over coronavirus fears.
