Number of Palestinian Women in Administrative Detention Rises to 20
Twenty Palestinian women are now held in administrative detention after Israeli military courts issued new orders against three more, none of them facing charges or a trial date.
The Prisoners’ Media Office named the three: Abeer Mahmoud Odeh from al-Bireh, given a four-month order; Fida Nadi Awad from Badras village in the Ramallah district, also four months; and Suad Nader al-Khawaja from the town of Nilin, two months.
Israeli forces arrested all three on March 3 as part of a raid across the occupied West Bank that swept up more than 40 Palestinians. The women were moved first to HaSharon prison, then to Damon.
More than 3,450 Palestinians are currently held under administrative detention, a measure the occupation uses as collective punishment. The policy spares no one. More than 85 children sit in rolling detention alongside the 20 women.
Seventy-three Palestinian women are imprisoned in total. Prison authorities enforce a deliberate starvation policy, withhold medical care, and strip cells of basic necessities. Guards raid living quarters repeatedly, beat and restrain women for hours at a time, and fire sound grenades and tear gas inside the sections.
