Nablus- In light of the enforced absence, female prisoners began to see their families and themselves in dreams, and as soon as they woke up, they spent time interpreting what they saw, and fears consumed them, so that hope remained suspended until news came days or weeks later, indirectly, through a visit to a lawyer or the arrival of a new prisoner.
With this description, the two freed prisoners, sisters Banan (24 years old) and Ibaa (22 years old), Salah Sharida, summarized the condition of their fellow prisoners in the Israeli occupation prisons, and the suffering they face that exceeds all prohibitions, and their most basic rights to captivity and humanity have been violated, especially after the war on Gaza.
In the family home in the village of Salem, near the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, the two girls were still receiving well-wishers for their release, two days after their liberation from the occupation prisons. On the wall of the roof of the house, the family hung a banner welcoming them and congratulating them on their safe liberation. Who will be released from the occupation prisons these days? It will be “like someone who has a new life destined for him.”
The charge is prayer at Al-Aqsa
The two sisters, Banan and Ibaa, told Tel Aviv Tribune Net the story of their suffering since the moment of arrest more than two months ago from inside Al-Aqsa Mosque while they were heading to celebrate Laylat al-Qadr, where they were taken in handcuffs after being detained for several hours and violently searched in front of crowds of citizens to the Al-Qashla Investigation Center in the city of Jerusalem.
It was not the fault of the two sister girls except that they decided to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque, taking advantage of their proximity to it by virtue of their studies at Al-Quds University “Abu Dis” east of the city, and on the occasion of the month of Ramadan, when Palestinians from the West Bank cannot visit it at any time without the impossible conditions the occupation imposes on the worshipers. .
Between the Al-Qashla Investigation Center in Jerusalem and the Israeli “Hasharon” and “Damon” prisons, the two sisters were subjected to a harsh interrogation for 22 days, during which the occupation used the ugliest types of punishment, threats, and blackmail, as persuasion and intimidation to extract their confession. They were ghosted, cursed with obscenities, threatened to arrest members of their families, and deprived them of their confession. of university education, and threatened to publish pictures of them without a hijab.
Like the rest of the prisoners, the occupation deliberately tied their hands and feet and blindfolded them while transporting them via the bosta (prison bus) to the investigation centers and the court, where they were brought to court 8 times, until the occupation ruled that they be imprisoned for two months and imposed a fine of 600 US dollars, on charges of entering Al-Aqsa Mosque without a permit.
Banan told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “We stayed in Al-Bosta for hours and were isolated inside. The jailers deliberately tortured the prisoners in front of us by dragging, beating, and humiliating them. They intended to transfer Jewish civilian detainees with us, as they insulted us and insulted our religion and our Prophet with obscene words.”
She also adds that one of the officers transported them, accompanied by a soldier, in a private vehicle – not a bus – from the “Damoun” prison in Haifa in the north – where the Palestinian female prisoners are held – to the Al-Qashla interrogation center in Jerusalem, and he took them out of the vehicle after they had traveled a certain distance, and turned their hands behind their backs “after He tied them with iron, amidst extreme terror, and that was the day of Eid al-Fitr,” says Banan.
The family of the two sister prisoners experienced difficult suffering throughout their detention. Their father was summoned for interrogation amid a state of intimidation, and he did not know the slightest information about his two daughters, neither at the time of their arrest nor after that, nor even on the day of their release.
Conditions of abuse and torture
From the moment of arrest, the occupation forces practiced racism against the two sisters, Sharida, and they were interrogated separately, and they were also isolated from each other inside the prison.
Like other female prisoners, Banan and Ibaa faced the prison guard’s oppression, his storming of the rooms, and his beatings without distinguishing between old, young, and sick. They reduced food and offered the worst of it. They also refused to go out to the clinic despite their sick condition, for fear of punishment.
Banan says, “There is no kitchen, and the food comes ready-made and raw, and it is sweet without salt. Breakfast is a few bites, and lunch is either chickpeas or boiled lentils with burnt rice. Chicken is once a week, and we did not see meat. One time, the food was salted, so the female prisoners celebrated that.” “.
The female prisoners also suffered from overcrowding in the rooms, being prevented from meeting with lawyers or visiting their families, sleep deprivation, being prevented from bathing for long periods, and other abusive measures against them.
Ibaa says that their suffering – despite its difficulty – is not compared to what faced dozens of female prisoners who lived through the tragedy at the beginning of the war, or who were arrested after that, such as the female prisoners of Gaza, who were brought to Damoun prison in a deplorable condition, where they were in torn clothes, their veils had been removed, and they were deprived of showering for a long time. “This confirms that they were detained in detention camps set up by the army for long periods, before they were transferred to Damoun prison.”
She explains in details that female prisoners are suppressed with pepper gas for the most trivial reasons, “such as the prison guards not liking the color or shape of their shoes, especially during the daily count.” She adds that many of them were beaten violently, others were dragged, one fainted for three hours without the jailer doing anything, others left traces of the handcuffs on their wrists, one was tied with three locks with her hands, and others suffered fractures and muscle tears, in addition to strip searches, and the placing of some of their heads in the toilet. .
But the worst and most dangerous is what the female prisoners of Gaza suffered, as it was reported that the occupation forces isolated the women of Gaza alone, away from the rest of the female prisoners, including elderly women, “and there was the grandmother, her daughter, and her granddaughters together.” Despite releasing some of them, the occupation kept 3 of them and transferred them to the rooms of the female prisoners in the West Bank. West, which gave the two sisters, Banan and Ibaa, the opportunity to meet them.
The most suffering was the prisoner Asmaa Aslim, a mother of four children. The occupation threatened to liquidate them in front of her the moment she and her husband, Arafat Shatat, were arrested from Deir al-Balah.
Ibaa says, while sadly narrating the story of her companion in detention, “They threatened her with everything to extract any confession from her. For more than 40 days, she did not know anything about her husband. At an interrogation session, she was summoned and they brought him to threaten her. She was surprised by him with his feet and hands amputated and with an injury to his head. She was also injured.” “With severe bruises on her face, they both do not know if their children are alive.”
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have arrested more than 9,000 Palestinians, including more than 300 women, whether from the West Bank, internal Palestinians, or Gazan women who live in the West Bank. About 75 of them remain prisoners in Damoun Prison, while others were arrested. The occupation occupied dozens of female prisoners from inside Gaza after the war.