Over 200 Palestinian women and girls, including journalists, university students, and minors, were arrested by Israeli forces in 2025 according to prisoner rights groups, with many held without charge in conditions condemned by UN experts as potentially constituting a crime against humanity.
According to a recent report from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office, Israeli forces arrested more than 200 Palestinian women and girls during the year 2025. The arrests targeted a broad cross-section of society, including minors, mothers of martyrs and prisoners, journalists, and university students. Among the most vulnerable cases were women suffering from cancer.
As of the report’s release, 49 Palestinian women remain detained in Israeli prisons. Notably, approximately one-third of these women are held under administrative detention, a controversial Israeli legal procedure that allows for indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial. Palestinian rights organizations assert that these arrests represent a systematic policy designed to exert psychological pressure on families and communities.
🔍 Systematic Targeting of Vulnerable Groups
The report details a pattern of focusing on specific, vulnerable segments of Palestinian society. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society confirmed that among the 49 women currently detained are two young girls and one prisoner from Gaza.
The arrests have notably included female journalists and media workers. According to the Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies, eight journalists were arrested in 2025, some while performing their work. Three, including journalist Ashaq Muhammad Awad, remain in detention.
University students have also been a significant target, constituting nearly 18% of the arrests. In one notable incident in September, eight female students from Hebron University were arrested in a single night. Furthermore, 17 minors were arrested throughout the year, with two, Sally Siddeqa and Hana Hammad, still imprisoned.
Particularly alarming cases involve women with severe health issues. These include Fidaa Asaf, a 54-year-old suffering from leukemia, and Suhair Za’aqiq, who has cancerous fibroids. In a grave incident highlighting the extreme conditions, Tahanee Abu Samhan was forced to give birth while imprisoned in Damon Prison.
🏛️ Harsh Conditions and Systematic Abuse in Detention
Prisoner advocacy groups report that the detained women face severe and systematically abusive conditions. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society has stated that abuses have intensified to “unprecedented levels,” citing widespread practices of torture, deliberate starvation, medical neglect, and sexual assaults.
Conditions in Damon Prison are described as especially dire. Reports from within the prison describe systematic starvation, medical neglect, humiliating strip searches, repression, and violations of privacy. Former detainees have provided accounts of being forced to kneel while bound, subjected to offensive verbal abuse, and enduring violent cell raids intended to degrade human dignity.
⚖️ International Legal Condemnation
The treatment of Palestinian detainees has drawn severe criticism from international legal bodies. In August 2024, a group of United Nations independent experts stated that reports of torture and sexual violence in Israeli prisons are “not only utterly unlawful and revolting, they represent the tip of the iceberg.”
The UN experts concluded that Israel’s “widespread and systematic” abuse, coupled with an apparent lack of state restraint, “paints a picture of absolute impunity.” They warned that such practices may amount to a crime against humanity, citing documented testimonies of detainees—both men and women—being held naked, blindfolded, deprived of basic needs, electrocuted, and subjected to sexual violence.
📈 Broader Context of Escalating Arrests
The arrests in 2025 occur within a larger, ongoing surge of detentions across the occupied territories. According to the Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies, the total number of arrested women and girls since the war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023, has exceeded 650.
This period has coincided with a devastating toll on women in Gaza. A December 2025 report from the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) detailed a severe reproductive health crisis, noting that at least 10,417 women were killed and 23,769 injured in Gaza between October 7, 2023, and October 7, 2025. The same report documented patterns of torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence and harassment, against Palestinians arbitrarily detained from both Gaza and the West Bank.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office has called for international human rights institutions to intervene urgently. They demand an end to the arrest policy against Palestinian women and girls, pressure for their immediate release, and action to halt the severe violations they endure inside prisons.
From: sana