Palestinian Prisoners’ Club: 49 Female prisoners face systematic crimes in Israeli occupation prisons
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club stated today, Sunday, that 49 female prisoners, including two minors, Sally Sidqa and Hana Hammad, as well as 12 administrative detainees—among them the minor Hana Hammad—and a prisoner suffering from cancer, are facing organized and systematic crimes inside the Israeli occupation prisons.
The club, in a statement received by the Yemen News Agency (SABA) on the occasion of the Palestinian Women’s National Day, noted that Hebron Governorate has the highest number of female prisoners, totaling 14, six of whom had been previously detained. Among the prisoners is Fidaa Asaf, who suffers from cancer and is subjected to deliberate medical neglect.
The statement added that the longest-held prisoners are Shatila Abu Ayada and Aya Al-Khatib, who were detained before the outbreak of the genocidal war on Gaza, and are from the lands occupied in 1948.
It emphasized that the arrest, torture, and systematic violations against Palestinian women constitute a form of ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.
The Prisoners’ Club highlighted that the post-war phase imposed radical changes on the conditions of female prisoners, accompanied by a series of crimes committed by the Israeli repressive system.
Among the most prominent of these crimes are: torture, starvation, deliberate medical neglect, sexual assault—including strip searches and harassment documented in several cases by female guards—psychological terror such as rape threats, systematic repression, repeated raids involving beatings and humiliation, forcing prisoners to kneel while handcuffed, and verbal abuse undermining human dignity.
These violations also include psychological torture applied from the very first moments of arrest, according to the prisoners’ testimonies.
The club reported that since October 7, 2023, until today, human rights organizations have documented more than 595 cases of female arrests in the West Bank, including Jerusalem and the lands occupied in 1948, while accurate statistics on female detainees from Gaza are unavailable, except for those confirmed to be held in Damoun Prison, estimated to number in the dozens.