The female Palestinian detainees in Damon Prison are being subjected to horrific and systemic abuse, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office reported.
The detainees are “being subjected to a dangerous and ongoing escalation, manifested in violent raids on prison sections, the forcible removal of detainees’ headscarves, and physical assaults, in a flagrant violation of all humanitarian laws and norms,” the office revealed earlier this week.
Basing its report on detainee testimonies, the office added that the “occupation forces carried out brutal repression targeting the detainees’ rooms, during which the women were forcibly taken out into the prison yard, made to sit on the ground, had their headscarves removed, and were beaten — particularly on their legs. The assaults also involved the use of dogs and stun grenades, resulting in injuries among the detainees.”
Abuse of those incarcerated has escalated this month, with detainees testifying that this was “the fourth such act of repression carried out during the month of December, without any justification.”
Israel has turned the cold weather into a tool of oppression against Palestinian detainees, denying them adequate shelter and hot water as they endure already harsh conditions in detention. Moreover, their requests for the provision of basic women’s necessities are being ignored by the Israeli authorities as a matter of policy:
The testimonies further indicated that the female detainees are enduring harsh detention conditions, most notably open windows in extremely cold weather, cold water in the bathrooms, and irregular access to daily yard time, which at times lasts less than one hour per day.
They also pointed to the continued deterioration in both the quality and quantity of food, with no improvement, leading to noticeable weight loss among a number of detainees.
The office added that there is a severe shortage of women’s necessities, despite repeated requests that have received no response from the prison administration, as part of a policy of deliberate neglect.
While the report focuses exclusively on Damon Prison, which was also the site of horrific abuse in August this year, detainees across occupied Palestine are being subjected to similarly harsh conditions.
Farah Abu Ayyash, a Palestinian journalist, was detained by the Israelis from her home in Al-Khalil (Hebron) in the West Bank in August this year. Last month, Farah’s colleague at Tasnim News Agency, Lama Abu Halou, shared Farah’s account of the appalling abuse she faced for 55 days at the Moskobia dungeon before she was transferred to Damon:
They took me to Moskobia, it was like a horror movie... They beat us and put us in a cell... They took my headscarf and handcuffed and shackled my hands and feet... They threw a heavy chain over my shoulders... The Nachshon force (the Israeli prison service special operations unit) beat me hard... A female soldier pulled my hair and slammed my head against the wall and told me to kiss the Israeli flag, but I refused. She started beating me and kicking me with her feet... I was feeling bad, after three days they took me to the hospital. A female guard grabbed me by the head and slapped me hard in the face... I filed a complaint against her.
After Moskobia, they took me to Ramla... A dilapidated room with no light, I screamed... They took me to an underground cell... The cell was full of cockroaches, insects and mosquitoes... It was scary... There were rats too. The cell was very, very dirty... They threatened me constantly... I screamed all night. Cockroaches had covered my body and face, I still have the marks of the bites on my body. Then they took me back to Moskobia... I lost consciousness several times along the way. (The Israeli soldiers) had turned the air conditioner so cold that it was unbearable. Each time I was transferred in a prison van it was horrible and scary. After 55 days they brought me to Damon.
Farah remains incarcerated in Damon Prison, despite never being charged with any crime.
Despite the release of nearly 4,000 detainees as part of prisoner exchange deals this year, more than 9,300 Palestinians remain languishing in the Israeli rape-and-torture dungeons. That number includes about 350 children and 51 women.
As underlined by Hamas in the Our Narrative document it released on Wednesday, the unconscionable treatment of Palestinian detainees was among the top reasons for its Al-Aqsa Flood operation. However, more than two years since that fateful day, the Israeli authorities have only become even more brazen in their barbaric treatment of Palestinians in their captivity.
Worse, despite frequent appeals by Palestinian authorities and detainee advocacy groups, no international institutions, or Western governments, which have significant leverage against the Israelis, have taken any meaningful action to hold Israel accountable or to halt the escalating abuses against Palestinian detainees.
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Men who treat imprisoned women like this are absolute cowards. Immoral, obscene, repulsive cowards - so typical zionist israelis.
It's a torn-apart feeling at Christmas. On the one hand for me to exchange messages with a Gazan man, a journalist, whose words cut deep, yet thank us in the West for our support. Then to watch Cardinal Pizzaballa and the Gazan Catholics celebrate in a church previously bombed by Israel, and to learn that Christians in Bethlehem are celebrating Christmas for the first time since 2022. Not that I'm a big fan of this holiday because of the consumption -- but to see the resilience, as the Cardinal praised in his sermon, makes it such a schizophrenic day. Because while some celebrate, most Gazans continue to live in deteriorating tents in the cold rain, continue to be abused in Israeli dungeons, while I'm warm in my house.
I'll say it for the third time in two days:
PACE, SOPRATUTTO E DAPPERTUTTO. Peace, above all and everywhere.