Sharp spike in Palestinian women arrests

The number of Palestinian women being arrested by Israeli forces in 2016 has more than doubled than the previous year, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club (PPC) has said.

Occupation forces arrested 170 women in 2016, a sharp spike compared to 85 women arrested in 2015.

There are currently 56 women in Israeli jails, 16 of which are under the age of 18 and 11 of which suffer from bronchial diseases.

Prisoners are subjected to various types of torture including punitive measures like preventing families from visiting, solitary confinement and medical negligence.

Since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, a total of 15,000 Palestinian women have been detained.

Israel arrested around 3,000 women during the first Palestinian Intifada in 1987. In the second Intifada in 2000, around 900 women were detained.

In October 2015, a new spate of violence started up again as Jewish raids on the Muslim holy site Al Haram Al Sharif stepped up.

Since then, around 252 Palestinians, 41 Israelis, two Americans, a Jordanian, an Eritrean and a Sudanese have died.

Palestinian women account for 27 of those killed.

There are two dedicated Israeli prisons for Palestinian women, namely Al Damon and Al Sharon.

The Israeli judiciary often hands Palestinian women lengthy jail terms for minor or unsubstantiated charges.

“Palestinian women are being murdered in cold blood and arbitrarily arrested,” Riyadh Al Ashqar, a PPC member told Gulf News, urging the international community to pressure Israel to stop its crimes

source : gulfnews