The Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy warns of the dangerous and rapidly deteriorating conditions of Palestinian female prisoners inside Damon Prison, where approximately 90 Palestinian female prisoners are facing an ongoing series of violations and punitive measures that amount to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, in clear violation of international humanitarian law and international conventions concerning the protection of detained women.
Among the detainees are three pregnant women, two minor girls, and three women suffering from cancer, which heightens fears for their lives amid the absence of adequate healthcare and the continued policies of abuse and medical neglect.
Palestinian female prisoners are facing repeated campaigns of repression involving physical assaults, strip searches, humiliating filming, and deprivation of the most basic necessities, in addition to the use of stun grenades and police dogs. They are also forced to remain for long hours in painful and degrading positions, while being subjected repeatedly to verbal and physical violence.
The Center notes that the prison administration of Israel has turned repression into a daily policy through repeated raids on prison rooms, forcing women prisoners into the yards late at night, compelling them to lie face down on the ground, physically assaulting them, and imposing collective punishments and deprivation of basic rights without any justification.
Available information reveals severe overcrowding inside Damon Prison, where many women prisoners are forced to sleep on the floor amid a severe shortage of clothing and basic supplies, as well as the failure to provide summer necessities, further compounding their daily suffering.
In terms of living conditions, the women prisoners suffer from a severe shortage of food and insufficient meals, forcing many of them to sleep hungry as part of a systematic starvation policy.
The Center expresses its grave concern over the conditions of pregnant and ill women prisoners, amid the absence of adequate healthcare and the continuation of harsh conditions that threaten their safety and the safety of their unborn children, in addition to the continued use of solitary confinement against some women prisoners.
At the Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy, we stress that what Palestinian women prisoners are being subjected to inside Damon Prison constitutes a compound crime targeting Palestinian women, their dignity, and their humanity. It also reflects the extent of the retaliatory policies practiced against them by Israeli forces.
Accordingly, the Center calls on the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, human rights institutions, and international rapporteurs concerned with women’s rights to take urgent action to save Palestinian women prisoners, send independent fact-finding committees, and exert pressure on Israel to stop the ongoing violations against them.
In conclusion, the Center affirms that the women of Palestine detained inside Israeli prisons are living through one of the harshest periods in the history of the women prisoners’ movement. The continued international silence regarding what they are enduring amounts to indirect complicity in the crimes committed against them, which requires urgent action in light of the escalating Israeli aggression and brutality against imprisoned women.
Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
