Serious abuses, including sexual assault: Hundreds of Palestinian women arrested by Israeli forces since October 7
Ramallah (Quds News Network) – Israeli occupation forces have arrested hundreds of Palestinian women from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since October 7, including minor girls, according to a report released by prisoner advocacy organizations.
The advocacy organizations stated in a report that the arrests of Palestinian women since October 7, 2023, represented a prominent and unprecedented policy adopted by the occupation. The number of women arrested reached approximately 240 from the West Bank and the occupied territories, including cases where women were arrested as hostages to pressure their family members into turning themselves in.
The report highlighted that the number of female prisoners held in occupation prisons, with the majority detained in the Damon prison, reached 60 detainees, including prisoners from Gaza. There is no information available about the number of female detainees from Gaza in occupation camps.
The organizations emphasized that one of the most significant crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian women, including detainees, was sexual assaults. These assaults included harassment, strip searches, and threats of rape.
The Hasharon prison was a witness to the degrading and humiliating strip searches that most detainees were subjected to, according to dozens of testimonies documented by the organizations. The conditions of detention, including physical assaults such as brutal beatings, added to the degrading and humiliating treatment suffered by the female detainees.
Palestinian female detainees face harsh and difficult conditions due to the collective isolation policy adopted by the occupation against both male and female prisoners. As of October 7, female prisoners are currently subjected to a policy of starvation, depriving them of additional food supplies from the canteen and denying them medical treatment.
