“Harsh” and “painful” conditions await Palestinian women held in Israeli prisons, a lawyer speaking on behalf of the PLO’s Committee for Prisoners and Freed Prisoners said on Sunday. According to Hanan Al-Khatib, who visited Al-Damoun Prison on Saturday, the Israeli occupation authorities are “completely isolating the prisoners from the outside world.”

She added that women prisoners are prevented from family visits under the pretext of security; their older sons especially are banned from seeing them. They are also placed in solitary confinement and exposed to “humiliating” searches and other such “provocative measures”.

The treatment, Al-Khatib pointed out in a media statement, starts in the van on the way to prison, with “dirty insults” and worse hurled at the prisoners. These are followed by humiliations during medical treatment and overcrowding; as many as 22 prisoners can be held in just two holding cells.

The PLO Committee noted that the health and psychological conditions of the women prisoners are “difficult and painful”. The Israeli prison service, it is alleged, causes such suffering intentionally.
Citing the example of Nisreen Hassan Abdullah from Gaza, the Committee explained that she is the mother of seven children and has been in prison since 2015. She has had no visits since then and has not been allowed to see any family member since she was imprisoned.

Khadija Rabaee from the occupied West Bank is a mother of six. The Israeli occupation forces attacked her children when they arrested her. She is being held under administrative detention, with neither charge nor trial.

[Source: MEMO, PC, Social Media]