Gazan women prisoners face the crime of enforced disappearance

The following statement was released by Palestinian Prisoners Institutions on March 7, 2024, on Resistance News Network.

This year has been the bloodiest for Palestinian women throughout the history of the years of occupation, in light of the comprehensive aggression and ongoing genocide against our people in Gaza, alongside war crimes and severe violations they have faced, including field executions, systematic arrests, and accompanying heinous violations, including sexual assaults. 

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, occurring annually on March 8, prisoner institutions (the Commission of Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs, the Palestinian Club Society, and Addameer Association for Human Rights) reported that targeting Palestinian women has been one of the most prominent and systematic policies since the early years of the occupation. 

The crimes witnessed today against Palestinian women have been ongoing for decades of occupation. The period following October 7 was not exceptional in terms of the horrific level of crimes witnessed and heard through many testimonies, but the difference lies in the unprecedented intensity and escalation of these crimes compared to periods of Palestinian intifadas and popular outbursts. 

Arrest operations of women, including minors, became an unprecedented policy of the occupation after October 7, with about 240 cases of arrests among women from the West Bank, including Al-Quds, and the lands occupied in 1948. There is no clear estimate for the number of women arrested from Gaza, though some were later released. 

It is certain that there are women still detained in “israeli” occupation camps, subjected to enforced disappearance. As of this report, the number of female prisoners languishing in occupation prisons, most of whom are detained in “Damon” Prison, reached 60, including two from Gaza, while we confirm once again that there is no information regarding the number of female prisoners from Gaza in “israeli” occupation camps. 

The report highlights key data on female prisoners in “israeli” prisons up to the date of this report. There are 60 female prisoners, including two from Gaza, among them minors, 24 mothers, 12 under administrative detention, including a lawyer, a journalist, 12 students, and 11 facing health issues, among them two injured women, in addition to wives and mothers of prisoners, and sisters of martyrs, including a martyr’s mother. 

It is noteworthy that three female prisoners detained before October 7 have been excluded from exchange deals negotiated between the occupation and the Palestinian resistance in November of the previous year. 

This statement was lightly edited.