The Israeli Prison Service has decided to prevent Hamas prisoners from receiving visits their families until further notice, the Palestinian Press Agency, Safa, quoted the Prisoners' Information Office as saying on Thursday.

The senior leadership of Hamas prisoners rejected what they considered the collective punishmentof their families from Gaza by depriving them of visiting their relatives, Safa reported.

The leadership described the decision as the “beginning of a war against the prisoners of the movement” and vowed to resist the imposition of the ban at “any cost”, Safa added.

There are around 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, with many held for indefinite periods of time and without charges under the British colonial-era Administrative Detention law, in violation of international law.