DaysofPal – The Prisoners’ Media Office said on Monday that more than 200 Palestinian women and girls were arrested by Israeli forces during 2025, including minors and two women diagnosed with cancer.
In a report, the office stated that 49 female detainees are currently held in Israeli prisons, one-third of whom are under administrative detention without charge or trial. It stressed that the arrest of Palestinian women constitutes a systematic policy employed by the occupation to pressure family members and, in some cases, to use women as human shields.
The report highlighted the direct targeting of vulnerable groups, including minors, mothers of slain Palestinians, and prisoners, noting that eight journalists and a number of university students are currently detained in Israeli prisons. It also confirmed that women suffering from cancer have been arrested and that one detainee gave birth inside Damon Prison.
According to the office, female prisoners in Damon Prison are subjected to serious violations, including deliberate starvation, medical neglect, degrading searches, violent repression, and severe breaches of privacy. Since October 7, Israeli forces have carried out more than 650 arrests of Palestinian women and girls.
Riyad Al-Ashqar, director of the Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies, said Israeli authorities deliberately arrest Palestinian women as a means of pressure and blackmail against their sons or husbands, forcing them to surrender under claims that they are “wanted.”
He noted that some women were detained for weeks without any legal justification and that several were used as human shields during Israeli military raids in refugee camps and villages across the occupied West Bank.
Al-Ashqar added that Israeli forces have also targeted mothers and sisters of those killed or imprisoned, arresting more than ten mothers who were interrogated for hours before being released, in an attempt to impose collective punishment on Palestinian families. He explained that approximately 18 percent of arrests over the past year involved female university students, a policy aimed at undermining their academic and social futures.
In one incident in September, Israeli forces detained eight female students from Hebron University during a nighttime raid, interrogated them on the spot, transferred them to the university campus, and later released them.
In the same context, Al-Ashqar revealed that eight Palestinian female journalists were arrested during 2025, some while covering Israeli violations and others during raids on their homes. The most recent arrest involved journalist Ashwaq Mohammad Awad from Hebron.
Israeli authorities have accused female journalists of “incitement” based solely on their media work. Journalist Farah Mohammad Abu Ayash and photojournalist Israa Ashraf Khamaisa, both from Hebron, remain in detention, along with journalist Ashwaq Awad, who was re-arrested in the final days of the year despite having been released in the first prisoner exchange deal in November 2023.
The arrests have also extended to Palestinian minors, with 17 girls detained during the year. Two minors, Sally Sadaqa from Hebron and Hanaa Hamad from Ramallah, remain in custody on charges of “incitement,” while the others were released following interrogation.
He further reported that two women suffering from cancer are currently held in harsh health and living conditions: Fidaa Suhail Assaf (54) from Qalqilya, who has leukemia and has been detained since February, and Suhair Sharif Za’aqiq, who suffers from fibrous cancer and was placed under administrative detention without charge despite her critical condition.
Al-Ashqar explained that Israeli forces routinely carry out arrests after midnight, violently storming homes, terrifying children, destroying property, and restraining women with handcuffs and blindfolds while subjecting them to beatings and verbal abuse before transferring them to interrogation centers and later to Damon Prison.
Female detainees in Damon Prison, he said, endure extremely harsh detention conditions that have worsened following the war on Gaza. These include food deprivation through a deliberate starvation policy, medical neglect, and violations of privacy through the installation of surveillance cameras throughout the prison and recreation yards. Prison authorities have also reactivated a humiliating procedure known as the “security inspection,” forcing detainees to kneel with their faces toward walls during repeated counts in an effort to degrade and exhaust them.
He added that special units frequently storm prison cells, restrain and blindfold detainees, spray gas inside rooms, and sometimes photograph them while mocking them. Al-Ashqar emphasized that “incitement” has become a vague and ready-made charge used to justify the arrest of Palestinian women without evidence, leading to the transfer of many to administrative detention in clear violation of international laws and conventions protecting freedom of expression.
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