Ramallah, July 27 (RHC)-- Two Palestinian women prisoners are currently behind bars in an Israeli jail in isolation and under extremely harsh conditions, a Palestinian commission says.
The Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission, which is run by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the occupied West Bank, announced the grim news on Sunday, identifying the pair as Fadwa Hamada and Jihan Hashima, the Palestinian Information Center reported.
The women are being kept in total solitary confinement in Jalamah detention center under harsh conditions, the commission said, adding that they are also watched by three security cameras and deprived of their basic needs and rights.
“Since we were transferred to Jalamah isolation jail, we have been wearing the same clothes. They have not brought our things. We were given one blouse each and a single tube of toothpaste with a worn and broken brush,” the Commission quoted the prisoners as saying.
Israel is holding 65 Palestinian women, including 12 minors, "under dire conditions" in its jails, a rights group says.
“When we go out to see the lawyer, our legs are shackled and they do not provide us with [protective] masks. Our families have also not been allowed to visit us for months,” they added.
Late last year, a number of Palestinian rights groups, including the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), revealed in a joint statement that the number of Palestinian detainees currently being kept behind bars in Israeli detention centers stands at around 5,000, including 50 women and 200 children.
Approximately 350 of these inmates are under the so-called administrative detention, which is a sort of imprisonment without trial or charge that allows Israel to incarcerate Palestinians for up to six months, extendable an infinite number of times.
The Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission says nearly 200 Palestinian children are behind bars in Israeli prisons in inhumane conditions, undergoing very rough interrogation process and torture.
On Saturday, Israeli forces arrested a 16-year-old girl, identified as Rima al-Kilani, in the vicinity of the village of Nazlet Zeid, southwest of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Information Center reported.
Her father, Abdul-Fattah, said that Israeli soldiers took his daughter to an interrogation center inside the Israeli settlement of Ariel and later extended Rima’s detention to four days after making false claims against her.
Separately on Saturday, Israeli forces also arrested a boy from his home in Issawiya district in Jerusalem al Quds, and later released him conditionally.
The report, citing local sources, added that 13-year-old Zain Addin Issam was arrested from his home in Obeid neighborhood in Issawiya and was later freed after ordering his father to pay 5,000 shekels.
Back in April, the Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission said in a report that nearly 200 Palestinian children and teenagers are being kept behind bars in Israeli prisons in inhumane conditions, undergoing “very rough interrogation process and torture.”
Every year, between 500 and 700 Palestinian children at the age of 12-17 are arrested and tried in Israeli military courts, the Defense for Children International says.
In March last year, the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, said that around 40 Palestinian children had been killed and hundreds more wounded in a year of anti-occupation protest rallies along the fence that separates the besieged Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
