A-KHALIL, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), Palestinian political activist and detainee Lama Khater has described severe abuses inflicted on Palestinian women held in Israeli prisons, including beatings, strip searches, dragging, humiliation and deprivation.
Khater, 50, from al-Khalil, gave the account to a lawyer who was recently permitted to visit her.
She said Israeli occupation forces arrested her after storming her home in al-Khalil at dawn on March 23, 2026, before transferring her to the Russian Compound detention center in occupied Jerusalem, which she described as “hell.”
According to Khater, female guards took her into a bathroom, subjected her to a complete strip search and then severely beat her.
After the assault and torture, she said she was thrown into a dark, extremely cold cell. Guards forcibly removed her hijab, verbally abused her, poured water over her mattress and confiscated her eyeglasses.
Khater said she and other women detainees were later handcuffed behind their backs and forced to lower their heads, kneel and face a wall in the prison yard.
She said members of the Israeli Prison Service’s Nahshon unit then dragged her across the ground while she remained restrained.
A “tragic” night in Ramla
Khater said conditions did not improve after she was transferred to Ramla prison.
She was placed alone in an insect-infested cell monitored by cameras, including in the bathroom area, and was forced to sit for extended periods on a metal surface.
After what she described as a “tragic” night in Ramla, Khater was transferred to Damon prison, where she said Israeli authorities carried out a large-scale raid against the women detainees.
According to her testimony, all the prisoners were subjected to strip searches before being taken into the prison yard with their hands cuffed behind their backs.
They were then forced to kneel and dragged across the yard, causing injuries and pain that continue to affect them.
Systematic targeting
Khater said she is punished on most days without explanation and was denied access to the prison yard for 10 consecutive days.
She described repeated violent raids involving stun grenades and police dogs.
Israeli guards deliberately blindfold women prisoners, cuff their hands behind their backs and throw them face down onto the floor, Khater said.
Female guards then step on their bodies and prevent them from wearing shoes, according to her account.
Overcrowding, hunger and deprivation
Khater is being held in Room 9 of Damon prison alongside Palestinian detainees Amna and Ayat Sweilem, Umm al-Baraa Ayyash, Salam Mansour, Nevin Abdullah, Fatina Sharabati, Shahd Adi, Bushra Qawariq and Naila Saradih.
She said the women’s cells are severely overcrowded, forcing some detainees to sleep on the floor.
Conditions for pregnant prisoners are particularly poor, she added, while guards confiscate clothing and prevent the women from showering.
In addition to beatings, humiliation and dragging, Khater said the prisoners regularly go to sleep hungry because they receive extremely small portions of food.
She said breakfast consists of no more than two spoonfuls of yogurt and one spoonful of jam.
Lunch typically consists of eight spoonfuls of rice with chickpeas, boiled wheat or lentils, while dinner includes one egg, two spoonfuls of hummus or tahini and, occasionally, a small amount of soup.
The women often save their food until sunset before eating it together, she said.
Khater, whose full name is Lama Abdul Muttalib Deeb Khater, is a mother of five, Yahya, Izz al-Din, Yaman, Bisan and Osama, and a grandmother to Hazem.
Born in Ramallah in 1976, she is a political, media analyst and writer for several newspapers and online publications.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Arabic language from the Faculty of Arts at al-Khalil University and is known for writings supportive of the Palestinian resistance.
