The Israeli occupation authorities banned the families of Hamas affiliates from visiting their jailed relatives implementing a recently-issued retaliatory measure.
The ban dovetails an Israeli government decision denying Hamas prisoners the right to family visits until further notice.
Sometime earlier the Hebrew-speaking Yedioth Ahronoth daily said the Israeli government decided that 1200 Hamas detainees from the blockaded Gaza Strip and the West Bank be banned from family visits in a move aiming to pressure Hamas to release Israeli soldiers held captive by the Movement.
On Monday morning only 52 Palestinians among whom 17 children were allowed to pass through the Israel-controlled Erez border-crossing to visit their relatives in the Israeli Nafha lock-up according to the Red Cross spokeswoman Suhair Zaqout.
