8th of March, International Women’s Day, arrives while dozens of Palestinian female prisoners remain detained in Israeli occupation prisons under harsh and degrading conditions that lack the most basic elements of humane living. This reality reflects one of the starkest forms of injustice and oppression faced by Palestinian women under occupation. While the world marks this day by celebrating women’s rights and human dignity, Palestinian female prisoners continue to face systematic policies of punishment, abuse, and medical neglect inside Israeli prisons, with little genuine concern from the international community or meaningful action to stop these blatant violations.
Palestinian female prisoners face extremely harsh humanitarian and health conditions on a daily basis. Monitoring by the Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy indicates that their suffering in Israeli prisons has significantly escalated in recent times due to a series of punitive laws and measures imposed by the Israeli Prison Service. Conditions inside the sections designated for female prisoners have reached unprecedented levels of deterioration. Many prisoners suffer from serious and contagious diseases amid the absence of adequate medical care, while prison authorities often refuse to allow many of them access to doctors or provide the necessary treatment.
The suffering of female prisoners is further exacerbated by harsh environmental conditions inside the prison rooms, most of which lack proper ventilation and have high levels of humidity. These conditions contribute to the spread of skin and respiratory diseases. In addition, rodents and poisonous insects are reported to spread throughout the prison sections, along with foul odors caused by the deliberate withdrawal of essential cleaning supplies from the prisoners. Prison authorities also impose further restrictions by reducing the time prisoners are allowed outside into the prison yard to, at best, no more than half an hour per day, increasing the isolation and psychological and physical pressure experienced by the prisoners.
The Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy affirms that these policies represent a clear violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, which explicitly require the provision of full healthcare for prisoners and guarantee that they are held in conditions that preserve their human dignity and physical and psychological well-being. However, Israeli authorities continue to violate these rules systematically without any real deterrence or international accountability.
According to data from the Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy, the number of Palestinian female prisoners in Israeli prisons has risen to 58 prisoners during March 2026, the vast majority of whom are held in Damon Prison, where they face harsh detention conditions that continue to worsen due to ongoing punitive policies and arbitrary measures targeting them directly.
At the Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, we affirm that what Palestinian female prisoners are subjected to represents a stain on the conscience of the international community, which proclaims women’s rights in international forums while turning a blind eye to the grave violations endured by Palestinian women inside Israeli prisons.
Accordingly, we emphasize the following:
First: The continued detention of Palestinian female prisoners under deteriorating humanitarian and health conditions constitutes a clear violation of international humanitarian law and requires urgent international action to end these punitive policies and secure the immediate and unconditional release of all female prisoners.
Second: We call on the International Committee of the Red Cross to intensify its visits and monitoring of the conditions of female prisoners in Israeli prisons and to pressure the occupation authorities to improve their detention conditions and ensure they receive the necessary treatment and healthcare.
Third: We call on all international and human rights organizations concerned with defending women’s rights to assume their moral and humanitarian responsibilities toward Palestinian female prisoners and to work seriously to expose the violations they face and hold the occupation authorities accountable for these crimes.
Fourth: We affirm that the steadfastness of Palestinian female prisoners inside prisons represents a living example of the struggle of Palestinian women in confronting occupation, and that the continuation of these violations will only strengthen our people’s commitment to their legitimate rights and their rejection of policies of repression and oppression.
Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy
Sunday, March 8, 2026
