RAMALLAH: The Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said today that new testimonies of female detainees who were recently detained by Israeli forces showed that they were subjected to repeated attacks and abuse during and after their detention.
The female detainees spoke about the conditions of their detention in the Israeli ‘Hasharon’ cells, which constitute a station for humiliation, abuse and strip searches before they were transferred to the ‘Damon’ detention center where they suffered harsh and unprecedented detention conditions.
In the testimony of female detainees who preferred not to reveal their identities out of fear for their lives, one of them stated that after her detention she was tied tightly with plastic handcuffs, her eyes were blindfolded, and the Israeli troops forced her to walk a long distance on uneven bumpy roads.
“They took me to one of the houses where the detainees were being held that day, and they ordered me to sit on the floo
r. 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,’ she said.
Hasharon detention center was, and still is, a station for abuse and humiliation against female detainees, and this escalated dramatically after October 7 of last year. Based on continuous visits that were made recently, female detainees confirmed that they were subjected to humiliation, searches, and assault in the detention cells, which they stressed are not suitable for human living.
The Commission and PPS said that the conditions of detention of female detainees in the “Damon” prison after a long journey of abuse and humiliation since the moment of their detention and in “Hasharon” prison constitute an extension of the violations they are subjected to.
T
he female detainees confirmed that the conditions of their detention are harsh and very difficult, as a result of the collective isolation imposed on them, in addition to the prison administration’s provision of poor food in quantity and quality.
The number of female detainees in the occupation detention centers is 67, including four from the Gaza Strip in the ‘Damoun’ detention center, including a mother and her two daughters. The majority of female detainees are held under administrative detention, without charge or trial, or on charges of incitement.
No data is available about Gaza female detainees held in detention camps as a result of the crime of enforced disappearance.
Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA