Israel arrests 84 Palestinian women and girls in 2017

Israel has arrested 84 Palestinian women and young girls over the past six months, the Prisoners’ Center for Studies said in a report.

Researcher and spokesman for the centre, Riyadh Al-Ashqar, explained that Israel targets Palestinian women and young girls in order to deter them from participating in the Jerusalem Intifada and in an effort to intimidate them. In order to achieve these aims Israel has shot women and arbitrarily detained them without any evidence of crimes.

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Al-Ashqar pointed out that 84 women and young girls have been arrested since the beginning of this year, including nine minors, the youngest of whom are 14 years old. They include Malak Al-Ghaleez from the Al-Jalazone refugee camp, who was beaten while being arrested, and a 12-year-old girl from Jerusalem, Hadeel Al-Rajabi, was summoned for interrogation at the Al-Muskubiya police station.

Israeli authorities arrested two sisters from the Gaza Strip at the Beit Hanoun crossing while they were on their way to hospital in the West Bank for treatment as one of them was suffering from cancer. One of them was released while the other is still in detention.

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They also detained a number of girls who were shot while being arrested for attempting to stab Israelis. Among them were 28-year-old Manar Mujahid from Jerusalem and 39-year-old Asiya Al-Kaabana from Ramallah, who was arrested at the Qalandia checkpoint after allegedly stabbing a female soldier. Takwa Bassam Hammad, aged 17-years-old from Silwad in Ramallah, was also shot and wounded then arrested and taken to the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem. She was released a week later.