Marking International Women’s Day, the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) announced on Sunday, March 8, that there are currently 43 Palestinian women incarcerated in Israel for resisting the Israeli occupation of their land.

A solidarity rally with women prisoners held in front of the Red Cross office in Ramallah, March 3, 2020 (Photo: Palestinian Prisoner Club)

The PPS said 27 of the women have been sentenced to various terms, the highest being 16 years for Shurouq Dwayat, from occupied East Jerusalem, and Shatilla Abu Ayyad, from inside Israel. From among the prisoners, 16 of the women are mothers, four are being held in administrative detention for varying periods without charge or trial and based on secret evidence, and eight were shot and wounded by soldiers before they were detained.

The PPS said one of the wounded women is Isra Jaabis from Jerusalem, 35, the mother of a child who was arrested in October 2015 after a gas cylinder exploded in her car near an Israeli army checkpoint. In the detonation she suffered burns to 60% of her body, mutilation, and lost eight fingers. She was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

According the PPS, Israel has detained more than 16,000 Palestinian women since its occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in June 1967. It said the women prisoners undergo intensive interrogation and torture during detention to force them to sign confessions.