Israeli occupation forces have arrested over 16.000 Palestinian women since 1967

Since 1967, Israeli occupation forces have arrested over 16.000 Palestinian women, according to the Head of Studies and Documentation Section in Family Affairs Commission Abdul Naser Ferwaneh says.  

He was quoted by the Syrian News Agency (SANA) as saying that 128 women were arrested by Israeli occupation forces last year, while 29 others have been arrested since the beginning of this year.

“8 out of 29 female prisoners were wounded while the Israeli forces were arresting them and they received no treatment. They were subject to torture and isolation and their families were not allowed to visit them,”  Ferwaneh added.

He referred to the detainee Israa al-Jaabis , 35, who was arrested in October 2015 after Israeli occupation forces opened fire at her car  causing burst in cooking gas cylinder in her car.

Jaabis suffered from first and third-degree burns on 60 percent of her body.

“I feel scared when I look at my face in the mirror, so imagine what others must feel when they look at me.”

Those are the words of Jabbis, the Palestinian mother from al-Quds [Jerusalem] who has been languishing in Hasharon, the only Israeli prison for Palestinian female prisoners.

Marking  International Women’s Day, Palestinian Human Rights Organizations affirmed the continuity of Israeli occupation authorities’ violation of international laws related to the Palestinian woman’s right.

“In 2019, Israeli occupation forces killed 9 Palestinian women and 28 children and wounded 732 women and 227 children. While since March,30, 2018, Israeli occupation forces wounded 2000 women and 600 girl children during the marches of return in Gaza Strip,” the organizations asserted.  

The largest number of arrests occurred in the first ‘Intifada’ (1987-1993), during which 3,000 women were arrested, and the second uprising of 2000-2005, when around 1,000 women were detained.

Over the past two years, Israeli occupation forces intensified their campaign of arrest against Palestinian women and children and they arrest them at school, mosques, churches or workplaces.

44 Palestinian women and girl children are held in Israeli jails for resisting the Israeli occupation of their land.

The female prisoners undergo heavy interrogation and torture during detention to force them to sign confessions.

Basma Qaddour