Pregnant Palestinian Women Imprisoned by the Israeli Occupation
May 14, 2025
Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS)

Ramallah, occupied Palestine - The Israeli occupation continues to imprison two Palestinian women who are both in their fifth month of pregnancy. They are being held in harsh and difficult conditions in Israel’s Damon prison. Like all other Palestinian political prisoners, the women are subject to systematic violations of their rights including deliberate starvation despite their sensitive condition. 

A recent visit by lawyers of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society to the two pregnant women revealed that they are suffering from a lack of specialized medical care and infrequent follow-up. The two women are: Reema Balawi, a 31-year-old mother of two who was arrested from her home in Tulkarem city in February 2025, and Zahra Kawazbeh, a 37-year-old mother of three, who was arrested at a military checkpoint in April 2025 near Jericho. Israeli military courts have extended their detention orders multiple times. A court session is scheduled for Balawi on June 15, 2025, and for Kawazbeh on May 18, 2025.

The two women, who are held under charges of “incitement”, suffer from serious health conditions in addition to the fact that they are pregnant. Balawi has a blood disorder (Thalassemia) and requires medical attention, while Kawazbeh suffers from neurological issues and also needs close medical monitoring. Their continued detention constitutes a compound crime. These women are also forcibly separated from their children, a form of suffering that has only worsened due to the occupation’s ongoing blanket ban on all family visits —causing severe psychological distress among the detainees.

The targeting and arrest of women has spiked at an unprecedented rate since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza in October 2023. Israeli occupation forces have carried out at least 525 arrests of women as documented by prisoner defense and advocacy institutions, many of them on the basis of so-called “incitement” on social media. As of May 2025, 37 identified Palestinian women are being held in Israel’s prisons, not including those who were arrested from Gaza and are subject to enforced disappearances.  

It must be noted that the Israeli occupation’s definition of “incitement” is overly broad and arrests made on this basis are arbitrary. This charge has been used against broad segments of Palestinian society and has become a central tool of control and surveillance, aimed at curbing freedom of speech and expression. In practice, it functions as a form of administrative detention, allowing Israel to imprison individuals indefinitely without charge or trial.

The Prisoner's Society holds the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the fate of all female detainees, including Balawi and Kawazbeh, and urges the international community, especially the UN, to act against the ongoing genocide in Gaza and systematic prison violations. 

As of early May 2025, over 10,100 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons, including 3,577 of them arrested from the occupied West Bank and are being held without trial or charge under administrative detention.