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Female Palestinian detainees suffering abuse, humiliation in Israel detention centres

March 21, 2024 at 6:36 pm

Palestinian women holding Palestinian flags and banner, gather to stage a demonstration in support of Palestinians, in Ramallah, West Bank on March 07, 2024. [Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency]

The Commission for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs along with the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) reported new accounts from.

Female detainees recently held by Israeli forces have revealed details of repeated mistreatment and assault both during and after their detention, rights groups have said.

The female detainees detailed the harsh conditions they endured in the Israeli Hasharon cells, where they suffered humiliation, abuse and degrading strip searches, after which they were transferred to the Damon Detention Centre where they faced even more severe detention conditions.

One of the detainees, who chose to remain anonymous due to concerns for their safety, described being tightly bound with plastic handcuffs and blindfolded while being forced by Israeli soldiers to walk long distances on rough roads.

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“They took me to one of the houses where the detainees were being held that day, and they ordered me to sit on the floor. I refused because of the pain I was experiencing in my feet. I asked to go to the bathroom but one of the female soldiers refused and when I asked her repeatedly she brutally pushed me while one of the soldiers hit me on the chest with his weapon. I was later transferred to a military vehicle while suffering from severe shortness of breath.”

The Commission for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs and PPS emphasised that the detention conditions endured by female prisoners in the Damon facility are a continuation of the abuse and degradation they faced from the moment of their arrest, extending from their time in the Hasharon prison.

According to Wafa news agency, there are currently 67 female detainees held in the occupation’s detention centres, including four from the Gaza Strip detained in the Damon Detention Centre, among them a mother and her two daughters.

The majority of these detainees are held under administrative detention without formal charges or trial. While Israel defends the practice as necessary for security reasons, human rights groups globally contend that it denies detainees the right to due process, with many held indefinitely on the basis of “secret” evidence and without ever knowing their alleged crime.

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