🔴 National Day of the Palestinian Woman: 49 Female Political Detainees Held in Israeli Occupation Prisons

October 26, 2025

Ramallah, occupied Palestine – The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) stated that the Israeli occupation authorities continue to detain 49 Palestinian women, including two minors and one prisoner abducted from Gaza, who are subjected to systematic and organized crimes inside the occupation’s prisons and interrogation centers. The PPS explained that the scale and intensity of these crimes have escalated unprecedentedly since the outbreak of the genocide, which has constituted the bloodiest phase in the history of the Palestinian people, and whose harsh effects continue to mark the reality of female prisoners.

On the occasion of the National Day of the Palestinian Woman, observed every year on October 26, the PPS added that the period following the genocide brought drastic transformations in the conditions of women’s imprisonment, accompanied by a series of crimes committed by the Israeli occupation’s repression apparatus, most notably: torture, starvation, deliberate medical neglect, and sexual assault – especially strip searches and harassment, which the organization has documented in several cases perpetrated by female wardens. In addition, the prisoners are subjected to psychological terror, including threats of rape, systematic suppression raids, and repeated violent invasions of their cells involving beatings, humiliation, and forcing detainees to kneel while handcuffed, accompanied by degrading insults. These violations also include psychological torture from the very first moments of arrest, according to prisoners’ testimonies.

The PPS emphasized that what is happening to Palestinian women represents one aspect of the ongoing genocide. Since October 7, 2023, human rights organizations have documented over 595 arrests of women in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, and in the 1948-occupied territories, while no precise statistics are available on the number of women detained from Gaza, apart from those confirmed to be held in Damon Prison, estimated to be dozens.

As of the preparation of this report, the number of Palestinian female prisoners held by the occupation is 49 women, including Tasneem al-Hams from Gaza, and two minors: Sally Sadaqa and Hanaa Hammad. There are 12 administrative detainees, including the minor Hanaa Hammad. The prison also includes 6 women who have previously been detained, and several sick prisoners, among them Fida’ Assaf, who suffers from cancer and requires intensive treatment. The oldest detainees are Shatila Abu ‘Ayadah and Aya al-Khatib, both arrested before the genocide and from the 1948-occupied territories.

The PPS confirmed that the policy of hostage-taking of women has intensified dangerously during the war, as the occupation has used this tactic to pressure relatives of detainees to surrender themselves. This policy has targeted wives of prisoners and martyrs, and elderly mothers over seventy years old, accompanied by acts of abuse, home destruction, property confiscation, child intimidation, and threats to kill the husbands or sons of the detained women.

The PPS further explained that Hasharon Prison has become a notorious site of torture and ill-treatment. According to prisoners’ testimonies, women were held in filthy cells lacking the minimum necessities of life, subjected to strip searches and beatings for refusing them, and given spoiled food and worn-out mattresses unfit for use. In Damon Prison, the prison administration has turned even the most basic needs into tools of collective punishment, including sanitary pads and clothing, while depriving prisoners of ventilation in summer and heating in winter, as well as family and lawyer visits, and imposing prolonged collective isolation.

The PPS noted that female prisoners are also subjected to repeated raids and suppression operations, which have escalated significantly since September 2024, involving strip searches, shackling, beatings, degrading exposure in prison yards, and forcing them into humiliating positions. Among the most dangerous documented crimes are sexual assault, including harassment, strip searches, and threats of rape, as testified by both released and currently imprisoned women in documented accounts.

Regarding the grounds of arrest, most women are detained for exercising freedom of opinion and expression, or on allegations of “incitement” on social media. Others are held under administrative detention based on so-called “secret files.” Today, the majority of the detainees are imprisoned on charges of “incitement,” with 12 held under administrative detention.

The PPS affirmed that the violations against female prisoners since the genocide are unprecedented in their severity and brutality, as they are subjected to a ferocious system of organized torture and abuse.

Finally, the PPS  renewed its call on the international human rights system to take effective measures to hold the leaders of the Israeli occupation accountable for war crimes committed against the Palestinian people, to impose international sanctions that would end the culture of impunity enjoyed by the occupation, and to restore the genuine role of the international human rights system in protecting peoples and opposing genocide.