International Women's Day, observed annually on March 8, serves as an opportunity to highlight the achievements of women around the world. However, in Palestine, this day has always been overshadowed by stories of suffering under the ongoing Israeli occupation, particularly concerning Palestinian female prisoners in the occupying state’s prisons. Since the beginning of the occupation, the systematic targeting of Palestinian women has remained a consistent and entrenched policy that has persisted for decades. The crimes committed today are not new but rather a continuation of long-standing violations that Palestinian women have endured throughout history. What distinguishes the period following October 7 is not the nature of these crimes but their unprecedented scale and escalation, surpassing even previous periods of uprisings and popular resistance.

The recent period, since the outbreak of the genocide against the Palestinian people, has been one of the bloodiest in history for Palestinian women under occupation. Amid the widespread aggression and genocide targeting Palestinians everywhere, Palestinian women have not been spared from the grave violations of the occupation. They have been subjected to extrajudicial executions, systematic arrests, and the horrific abuses that have accompanied these actions.

The Arrest of Palestinian Women and Girls

Since 1967, Israeli occupation forces have arrested approximately 14,000 Palestinian women. In 2025, the occupation continues its campaigns against Palestinian women and girls, arresting them from the streets, at checkpoints, or during nighttime raids on their homes. Soldiers accompany these raids with police dogs to terrorize families and ransack homes. During the arrests, women are blindfolded and have their hands tied behind their backs before being transported in military jeeps, where they are subjected to torture and ill-treatment.

Today, the Israeli occupation holds 21 Palestinian female prisoners in Damon Prison, including 12 mothers, 2 administrative detainees, 18 detainees awaiting trial, 2 minors, 7 prisoners with medical conditions, 1 pregnant prisoner, 4 university students, 1 journalist, and 7 teachers. It is worth noting that in recent weeks, 71 Palestinian female prisoners were released as part of prisoner exchange deals during the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.

Among the detainees, there is a pregnant mother, a prisoner suffering from cancer, a child, and an injured detainee, all enduring harsh detention conditions that lack the most basic healthcare and humanitarian standards. They face deliberate medical neglect, putting their lives at risk and exacerbating their daily suffering.

Targeting Women Through Mass Arrest Campaigns

The Israeli occupation forces have intensified systematic arrest campaigns against Palestinian women since October 7, targeting all Palestinian areas without exception, including minors. They have also resorted to arresting women as hostages to pressure their targeted family members into surrendering, a policy that has escalated significantly since that date. These violations have included the arrest of prisoners' and martyrs' wives, elderly mothers over seventy years old, and other groups, extending beyond women alone.

The freed prisoner (H.B.) recounts: "I was arrested at around 1:30 a.m. after my house was stormed by dozens of soldiers. My eldest daughter woke up to the sound of violent banging on the door, and when she opened it, a rifle was pointed at her chest, terrifying her. They immediately stormed the house as we hurried to get dressed. My younger daughters, aged 8 and 10, were asleep in their room, and when they woke up to find soldiers towering over them, they started screaming and trembling with fear. Their father held them close, trying to comfort them."

Female Prisoners in Damon Prison: Complete Isolation from the Outside World

The Israeli occupation authorities hold most Palestinian female prisoners in Damon Prison, which has long served as a primary detention center for Palestinian women. Today, it houses 21 female prisoners who endure harsh detention conditions that have significantly worsened since October 7, as the occupation imposed a policy of mass isolation on prisoners in various detention centers. In the weeks following that date, the detainees were subjected to systematic abuse, including solitary confinement, physical assaults by suppression forces, confiscation of all their belongings, and deprivation of their basic rights, including communication with their families and children. Notably, in the aftermath of the genocide, the number of detained Palestinian women reached its highest level, with over 490 women arrested by Israeli forces.

In addition to these violations, the prison administration has imposed a policy of starvation, preventing prisoners from purchasing additional food through the canteen and providing them with inadequate and poor-quality meals. This, along with systematic medical neglect, constitutes a deliberate crime against them. Overcrowding in the prison has further worsened their suffering, forcing many detainees to sleep on the floor due to a severe shortage of clothing and blankets. This situation has become even more dire with the harsh cold waves, as some prisoners have been forced to wear the same clothes they were arrested in for an extended period without replacement.

The freed prisoner (H.H.) recounts her harrowing experience of detention, saying:

"After my arrest at the bridge, the soldiers transferred me to one of their military camps, where I was held for hours in a camp in Jericho before being later taken to Damon Prison. During my detention, I was beaten, insulted, subjected to a strip search, had my hands tied, and my eyes blindfolded. One of the female prison guards assaulted me multiple times. My time in Damon Prison was extremely difficult; the food portions were very small and of poor quality, and there was a severe shortage of blankets, mattresses, and clothing. The prison administration deliberately imposed these conditions as a form of abuse after October 7. We were constantly threatened, especially after September 2024."

(H.H.) recounts:

"On the morning of September 25, 2024, at 6:00 a.m., the routine prisoner count was conducted, and the guards left. About two hours later, at 8:00 a.m., they returned to the section and launched a sudden raid by the 'Yamaz' unit and prison guards on several rooms, including mine. The raid began with a violent storming of rooms 2, 3, 4, and 5, where the prisoners were forcefully taken out and moved to the canteen room. Then, they raided rooms 6, 7, and 8, searching and emptying them by force. All belongings were confiscated, except for a few colored clothes and food containers that we had saved from our meals."

The Occupation Targets Minor Female Prisoners in Arrest Campaigns

The arrest campaigns do not target only Palestinian women but also include underage girls, with the occupation having arrested dozens of minors over the years. Among these young detainees is prisoner (S.S.), who remains in Damon Prisonand recounts her difficult experience in detention. She was arrested on January 5, 2025, and was initially held in Ofer military camp for the first two days. During this time, she was forced to sleep on the floor without a mattress or blanket, while a cold air conditioner remained on continuously, adding to her suffering.

On the third day, she was subjected to a prolonged interrogation that lasted from 3:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m.After the interrogation, soldiers took her to a military jeep, where one soldier sat on her right and another on her left. The soldiers threatened to beat her if she did not speak and repeatedly hit her with books on her head and face during the 40-minute journey. Upon arrival at another military camp, she was taken to a room where soldiers and female officers gathered and brutally kicked her while she was unconscious. They then covered her head and took pictures of her before transferring her, along with other detainees, to the Russian Compound (Al-Maskobiya) detention center.

Female Prisoners from Gaza: Harsh Conditions and Ongoing Enforced Disappearance

Since the beginning of the aggression and genocide, and with the Israeli occupation’s ground invasion of Gaza, large-scale arrest campaigns have targeted women from Gaza, who were detained in military camps, including Damon Prison. In addition, the occupation arrested several sick women from Gaza while they were receiving treatment in hospitals in Jerusalem and the West Bank. While dozens of female detainees from Gaza have been released, the occupation continues to hold an elderly prisoner from the Strip. Harrowing testimonies have emerged about their arrests and detention conditions in military camps, where they were subjected to humiliation, abuse, and total deprivation of their rights. They were threatened with rape, subjected to degrading strip searches and sexual harassment, and endured constant verbal abuse and obscene insults from Israeli soldiers.

The Israeli occupation authorities have also forcibly disappeared several Palestinian women arrested from Gaza, refusing to disclose their whereabouts. With lawyers banned from visiting them for months, it has become nearly impossible to determine the conditions of their detention or document the violations committed against them. As for the female prisoners from Gaza held in Damon Prison, they were completely denied legal visits, subjecting them to an additional layer of isolation and deprivation.

Medical Neglect of Female Prisoners

The Israeli occupation authorities deliberately implement a policy of medical neglect against Palestinian female prisoners, many of whom suffer from physical injuries, chronic illnesses, or psychological conditions. Injured detainees are often transferred to Damon Prison before they have fully recovered, exacerbating their suffering as they are moved between prison and hospitals due to delayed medical treatment by the prison administration. Notably, the occupation continues to detain a female prisoner suffering from cancer without providing her with the necessary and adequate medical care.

In this context, the Israeli occupation arrested prisoner (M.H.) after she was injured at a checkpoint. Despite her medical condition, she remains detained in Damon Prison. (M.H.) recounts:

"I stayed in the hospital for three days, where they performed surgery on my hand. I was interrogated twice while in the hospital, and my legs were shackled to the bed. They only removed the restraints when I needed to use the bathroom. After that, they transferred me to Sharon Prison, shackling me again. The cold was unbearable, and the room was filthy, so I stayed awake all night. The next day, I was subjected to a strip search, just like when I first arrived, before they transferred me to Damon Prison."

House Arrest for Female Prisoners: Another Form of Israeli Imprisonment

The Israeli occupation's persecution of Palestinian women is not limited to imprisonment in detention centers but also extends to house arrest, with numerous Palestinian female detainees placed under restrictive confinement orders. In addition, several female prisoners are still facing ongoing trials in Israeli courts on security and civil charges. These policies are part of a broader campaign aimed at targeting Palestinian women, attempting to break their resilience and exert further pressure on them and their families.

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association calls on the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to take immediate action to halt the violations committed by the Israeli occupation authorities against Palestinian female prisoners, including arbitrary detention, torture, and ill-treatment. The organization urges the international community to ensure that the occupying state complies with international humanitarian law and international human rights law, particularly the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as well as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Addameerfurther demands that the occupation be compelled to release all female prisoners unconditionally, as their detention under such circumstances constitutes arbitrary imprisonment and a war crime.