Women captives suffer harsh violations in Israeli jails

Riyadh Al-Ashqar, the spokesman of the PA ministry of prisoners and ex-prisoners in Gaza city, has asserted Thursday that Palestinian women captives in Israeli jails suffer harsh and systematic violation at the hands of the Israeli jailers.

Ashqar’s remarks came in an open forum organized by the independent bureau for human rights in Gaza city on Thursday, where he also revealed that 36 Palestinian women captives incarcerated in the Israeli Hasharon and Damoun prisons.

According to Ashqar, the Israeli measures against the Palestinian women captives, including denying them family visits, detaining them in solitary confinement, malnutrition, and deliberate medical neglect among other inhumane measures, aim at breaking steadfastness and resoluteness of those captives.

Fatima Al-Zaq, a former prisoner in Israeli jails, who was invited to the forum, narrated her experience in the Israeli jail, saying that the IPA officials ordered to put her in a dirty solitary confinement room after they knew she was pregnant.

He added that the Israeli doctors in the jail tried many times to abort her pregnancy by prescribing her wrong and unknown medicine.

Another former captive Fayrooz Arafa explained the volume of her suffering while in Israeli jails, asserting that the IPA officials exercise the worst king of psychological and physical torture against Palestinian women captives in a bid to kill their will.

For his part, Jamil Sarhan, the director of the bureau, condemned the Israeli torture methods against Palestinian captives, including women and children, in Israeli jails, underlining that international laws and conventions prohibit such measures.

He also expressed anxiety for the health of Palestinian woman captive Linan Abu Ghalamh, holding the IPA fully responsible for her wellbeing. Abu Ghalama has been on hunger strike for 16 days now because the IPA officials refused to reunite her with her younger sister Taghreed detained in a different prison.