Palestinian Prisoner's Society Demands Serious & Urgent Intervention to Release Three Pregnant Palestinian Female Political Prisoners Held by Israeli Occupation in Harsh & Tragic Conditions

June 22, 2026

Ramallah, occupied Palestine – Palestinian Prisoner's Society: The Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS) holds the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for the fate of three pregnant female prisoners who continue to be detained under difficult and tragic conditions in “Damon” prison. The prisoners are Amina Al-Tawil, Dana Joudeh, and Manar Ibrahim. They are among at least 93 Palestinian female political prisoners who remain in the Israeli occupation’s custody, most of whom are held in “Damon” under oppressive and tragic conditions and unprecedented isolation. This situation persists amid the continued denial of access to all Palestinian prisoners by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) since the start of the Gaza genocide, as well as the blanket ban on all family visits since then.

In a statement issued Monday, the PPS explained that Amina Shaher Al-Tawil (37), from Qalqilya in the northern occupied West Bank, is four months pregnant. She is the mother of four children and the wife of a former prisoner who spent a total of 19 years in Israeli occupation prisons. Israeli occupation forces arrested her on March 18, 2026 over what the occupation alleges is “incitement,” and she remains in detention.

The occupation also continues to detain Dana Anad Joudeh (35), from Nablus, also in the northern occupied West Bank, who is a mother to one child and is five months pregnant. She has been detained since April 18, 2026 and has been placed under administrative detention without any trial or charge for six months.

Likewise, Manar Ibrahim (28), from Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, is the mother of two children and is four months pregnant. She was arrested on April 30, 2026 and continues to be held on allegations of “incitement” on social media.

The PPS stated that, based on ongoing visits conducted by legal teams to female prisoners and testimonies from women who have been released, the prison system continues to impose additional punitive and retaliatory measures against female political detainees. These measures have escalated to an unprecedented degree in recent months as part a broader system of torture directed at prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons. This includes intensified repression and systematic assaults, with dozens of raids and degrading searches documented over just a few months.

Pregnant prisoners are not exempt from the punitive and abusive policies that the occupation continues to implement within a framework of genocide inside prisons. These measures include torture, abuse, systematic humiliation, starvation policies, and continuous repression and intimidation around the clock. Some of the women have been subjected to harsh interrogations and detention conditions in cells lacking minimum health standards, despite their pregnancies, and without any special medical consideration. This has worsened their physical and psychological suffering, leading to weight loss, emaciation, and severe exhaustion.

The PPS noted that their detention in “Damon” represents the final stage of a detention process that included interrogation and subsequent transfer to “Hasharon” prison as a temporary holding facility. Details of their treatment during interrogation and at “Hasharon” reflect an extremely dangerous level of abuse and humiliation, particularly being forced to undergo strip searches. Strip searches have become one of the most prominent policies increasingly used against prisoners in general, including female detainees.

The PPS stressed that the continued detention of pregnant prisoners under these conditions constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, which requires an occupying power to provide healthcare and special protection for pregnant women and to protect them from cruel, degrading, or inhumane treatment.

In light of the information documented by the PPS and other specialized institutions, the PPS calls for immediate and serious intervention by international human rights and United Nations bodies, especially UN Special Rapporteurs, the ICRC and UN bodies concerned with women's rights and arbitrary detention, to ensure the immediate release of pregnant prisoners and provide them with international protection.

The PPS also renewed its call on the international human rights system to fulfill its legal and moral responsibilities and move beyond the paralysis that has accompanied the continuation of the genocide. Israeli occupation prisons and detention centers are among the principal arenas where these acts are taking place and calls for accountability for Israeli leaders for crimes committed against male and female prisoners - systematic crimes that are not subject to statutes of limitation and as part of an ongoing genocidal process.

Israeli occupation forces have arrested more than 765 women since the beginning of the genocide. These include girls, elderly women, and women from various social backgrounds, including students, lawyers, journalists, activists, teachers, homemakers, doctors, wives of prisoners and martyrs, sisters of prisoners and martyrs, and mothers of prisoners and martyrs. Some women were arrested together with their husbands, leaving their children deprived of the presence of both parents. The vast majority of the women were detained either under administrative detention without trial or charge, or on allegations of “incitement,” which has become one of the occupation's principal tools of repression following the genocide.

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