RAMALLAH, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), The Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) reported that the number of Palestinian female detainees in Israeli prisons rose to 52 during the current month of January, following the arrest of five women in the first eight days of the year.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the PPS said that the total number of women arrested since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, has exceeded 650 cases, amid an escalation in the targeting of Palestinian women.
It added that the arrests have been accompanied by serious violations, including brutal assaults, among them sexual abuse, stressing that the arrests did not spare minors and have targeted women from various Palestinian areas.
The PPS pointed to the increasing policy of arresting women as hostages to pressure members of their families to turn themselves in, describing this as one of the most dangerous crimes that has escalated since the beginning of the war.
It also noted that the vast majority of arrests were carried out on the grounds of freedom of opinion and expression, or what the occupation authorities claim to be incitement on social media. It explained that Israeli authorities are holding 16 women under administrative detention.
Administrative detention is a detention order issued by an Israeli military order on the pretext of a security threat, without an indictment, for a period of up to six months, renewable indefinitely. Intelligence services submit what is referred to as a “secret file” to the court, which the lawyer and/or the detainee are prohibited from accessing.
Regarding detention conditions, the PPS said that most female prisoners are held in Damon prison, where they face harsh conditions including collective isolation, torture, starvation, and medical neglect, in addition to sexual violations, including strip searches and harassment.
It clarified that it has “documented a number of cases of sexual harassment by female guards.”
It also pointed to “other repressive practices, including psychological terror such as threats of rape, repeated raids, physical assault and humiliation, forcing female prisoners to kneel while handcuffed, as well as verbal abuse that violates human dignity.”
The PPS affirmed that “what female prisoners are subjected to constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law,” calling on international human rights institutions to “urgently intervene to hold the occupation accountable and put an end to the crimes committed against Palestinian women.”
Israeli occupation authorities currently detain more than 9,300 Palestinian prisoners, including children and women, who are subjected to torture, starvation, and medical neglect that has claimed the lives of many of them, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights reports.
