Palestinian women from Hebron area, arrested in late October and released as part of Israel’s deal with Hamas, recount severe abuse in detention

From the start of the war in Gaza Strip to the end of 2023, Israel arrested about 5,500 Palestinians, including 184 women, some of them Palestinian citizens of Israel. B’Tselem collected testimonies from three women who were arrested in the Hebron area on 26 October 2023. All three were released in late November along with other female detainees and prisoners, as part of a deal with Hamas, which released women and minors abducted on 7 October 2023.

The testimonies paint a picture of extreme violence against these women , from the moment soldiers barged into their homes and arrested them to the day they were released. The women were removed from their homes violently, in the middle of the night, blindfolded and painfully handcuffed. They were then transferred between several prisons. Every transfer came with beating, swearing, and threats to themselves and their families, including threats of rape. The women were humiliatingly strip-searched several times. They went through several interrogation sessions, during which they were threatened and falsely accused without any evidence presented to them.

Holding conditions in all the detention facilities were inhumane. The scant amount of food the women were given was of poor quality, and they had to beg for drinking water. The cells were extremely small, crowded and filthy, and there was no way to clean them. Only some had mattresses, but these were extremely dirty, and the women were not given blankets or warm clothes. The toilets in the cell were exposed, even to people outside the cell, and requests for sanitary pads were repeatedly denied.

The women were not allowed to see a lawyer at any point, nor were they brought before a judge or informed of the allegations against them. No one explained what was going to happen to them and when they would be released, if at all. They were held like that, entirely uncertain about their future, for about a month.

These testimonies add to a slew of accounts by prisoners and detainees reported by the media in recent weeks, describing the violence and worsening conditions in Israeli prisons [MB1] since 7 October 2023. B’Tselem reiterates that it is Israel’s duty to protect all people in its custody and to provide them adequate living conditions, including food, water, medical care, clothing and a bed. Obviously, using violence against them – including threats, verbal abuse and humiliation – is absolutely prohibited, whatever the circumstances. These are not concessions to consider, but part of Israel’ moral and legal obligations.

Below are testimonies given to B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bari by three women from Hebron released on 30 November 2023, as part of the third phase of the exchange deal with Hamas.

Lama al-Fakhuri, 47, a mother of five who is an author and political analyst from Khallet Sharif[M2] , west of Hebron, said:

On Thursday, 26 October 2023, at around 1:30 A.M., my husband, children and I were woken by loud banging on the door. I got dressed quickly. Eleven masked soldiers burst in. One of them was a woman. They made us all go into the living room and took away all our phones. They shouted and swore at us. They were really aggressive. Some of them spread out in the house. I heard glass shattering and furniture breaking. The officer accused me of belonging to Hamas and supporting ISIS and terrorism. He swore at me. He showed me all kinds of media photos of the events of 7 October 2023, and said ISIS people raped women and burned children in settlements near the Gaza border. I told him that Islamic morals and religion forbid it. He said Israel would take vengeance on us and that all Palestinians would pay dearly.

He told my husband to start looking for a second wife because he was going to arrest me now, and that I would rot in jail my whole life. The female soldier led me outside violently. I asked her to let me go get my glasses, but she refused, so my son got them for me. I asked the soldiers to let me go to the bathroom, but they refused. I also asked to take some underwear and warm clothes, but the officer said I wouldn’t need them in jail. They handcuffed me with my hands in front, blindfolded me and took me out.

I walked about 500 meters, and then I was put on a bus. They lay me down on my back and then the bus took off quickly. A bag and other things that must have been up on the shelves fell down on me. The whole way, the soldiers made fun of me and humiliated me. When we got to a military camp, the soldiers told me to get out of the bus. They didn’t help me, even though I was blindfolded and handcuffed. They took me to a room sat me in a chair. I got my period that day, and I felt that my clothes were stained already. I asked the soldiers to let me go to the bathroom and also asked for water, but they refused. It was only after about an hour and a half that a female soldier untied my hands and took me to the bathroom. I didn’t have a sanitary pad to change. I drank a little water from the tap, and the soldier took me back to the room.

An interrogator came in and asked me in English what I thought about what Hamas did. He swore at me and called me “whore”. He said there were 20 soldiers in the room and that they would rape me like Hamas-ISIS raped Jewish women in southern Israel. He kept swearing at me, and threatening me and my family. Then a female soldier came and took me to another room with more female soldiers, who told me: “Welcome to hell.” They sat me in a chair and started laughing at me and calling me “whore” again and again. I sat on the chair until about 7:00 A.M. I was very thirsty, but they didn’t give me water.

In the morning, I was taken outside and put in a vehicle that took me to Ofer Prison. There, I was put in a small cell, blindfolded and handcuffed. About half an hour later, they brought two more girls into the cell. I called one of the guards and begged him to loosen our handcuffs a little, but he laughed at me. He said, in Arabic, “poor thing” and closed the window.

After about an hour, I was taken into interrogation. I was sat on a chair and my blindfold was removed. An interrogator there introduced himself as Captain Salman. He started accusing me of belonging to a terrorist organization and saying I had a senior position in Hamas-ISIS and that I was inciting against the State of Israel. I denied his allegations, and then he showed me some social media posts from accounts I had no connection to. I said they were fake accounts and that I had no connection to them.

Then they put me in a vehicle and took me to Hasharon Prison. They still hadn’t given me any food or drink since I was arrested. When I got to the prison, I went through admission and then they put me in a small, dirty cell with another girl. We called a guard to bring us water to wash the cell, but they ignored us. So we flipped the mattresses over and sat without moving.

Later that evening, they brought in the two other detainees who were with me earlier. I told the guard who brought them that there was no room left to sit or lie down, but she just laughed at me. At around 4:00 A.M., they brought two more girls in, and then there were six of us in this small, dirty cell, still with nothing to eat or drink. We insisted they bring us food, so they brought us a few pieces of bread and three small containers of sour cream. We leaned against the wall the whole night, but we couldn’t sleep. It was very cold in the cell. We were kept like that until Sunday, 29 October 2023. Every once in a while, the guards brought us a little bread or sour cream, in quantities that weren’t even enough for one of us.

The worst part was that the whole time, I didn’t change my pad. I asked the female guards several times to get me a pad, but they refused. While we were there, I started having terrible headaches and dizzy spells. I felt like my head was going to explode. One day, three female guards came into our cell and accused us of hiding cell phones. When we denied it, they dragged us out of the cell violently and took everything out of it, including the mattresses and a few pieces of bread we were saving, which they simply threw in the garbage. Then they took us back inside, one by one, and forced us to strip naked while they swore at us.

On 30 October 2023, at around 2:00 A.M., we were transferred to Damun Prison. There, we were put in a waiting room and each of us was taken into interrogation separately. The officer who interrogated me shouted at me, threatened me and warned me not to cause trouble in prison. Then I was taken to Unit 3 – a closed block with 55 female prisoners. That was the first time I was allowed to shower and given sanitary pads. Every day, more prisoners were added, until there were 85 of us there, all different ages. We were given very little to eat and were very hungry. There were nine prisoners in cells meant for six, and every cell only had mattresses and blankets. We weren’t allowed to buy things in commissary.

The day I was released, 30 October 2023, a lot of soldiers came into our unit. They told me and some other prisoners we were being released. We were strip-searched, fully naked, and put in a filthy room. A while later, a Shin Bet[M3] officer came and threatened me that I’d be arrested again if I spoke to the media. After that, we were transferred to Ofer Prison. We were kept there for 12 hours with nothing to eat or drink, and taken for interrogation during that time. Then they handed us over to the Red Cross.

Maryam Salhab, 21, pharmaceutics student from Khirbet Qalqas, Hebron District, said in her testimony:

On 26 October 2023, at midnight, I was sitting with my parents and sister when about 11 soldiers, one of them a woman, stormed into our house. Some of them were masked. They pointed their guns at us and ordered us not to move. I was wearing light half-sleeve pajamas and didn’t have time to change, so I put on my prayer clothes quickly to cover my hair.

The soldiers took me, my sister and my mother to one of the rooms. They stayed with my father in the living room, and I heard them shouting at him. They were looking for my older brother, who wasn’t home. A Shin Bet officer cursed him and threatened to arrest him and my other brothers as revenge for what Hamas did in southern Israel. The soldiers spread out in the apartment and made a huge mess.

After about an hour, the officer came into the room we were in. He came over to me and asked me if I knew what Hamas had done to Jewish women. I said I didn’t know anything except what they said on the news. He said they were taking me, and told the female soldier to search me. I was very scared. I’ve never taken part in political activity, and I’ve never joined any organization. It was the first time I got arrested. I begged them to let me put on my jilbab but they refused, and took me away in my pajamas with the prayer clothes over them. They tied my hands behind with metal handcuffs. It hurt a lot and I couldn’t move my hands. They blindfolded me, too, and then took me outside.

They put me on a bus, and I could see under the blindfold that there was no one there except the driver. Eight soldiers got in after me and swore at me. One of them hit me hard on the head and on the shoulder. The bus started driving, and after about 10 minutes we got to a camp I didn’t know. The soldiers took me out, and then a soldier punched me hard on the head. He swore at me and called me ISIS, and then cursed Hamas. They made me lie face down on the ground, with my face in the dirt. Then they tied my feet with zip ties, pulled very tightly together. Two soldiers trod on my back. I felt that I couldn’t breathe. There was dirt in my mouth. Every time I tried to raise my head to breathe, a soldier stepped on my head. I told them I was choking, and they responded by swearing. I lay there, shivering in cold and pain all over my body, with soldiers kicking me and spitting at me, until I heard the muezzin call for morning prayers.

I was put in a military vehicle and we drove off. A soldier sat next to me, and I felt there were other soldiers there. I was very thirsty and asked them for water, but they refused and swore at me. My hands hurt from the handcuffs, and I asked them to loosen them a bit, but they wouldn’t and swore and shouted at me again. At some point, the vehicle stopped and they brought in another detainee. I hadn’t slept since I was taken out of my parents’ house, so I fell asleep during the ride with my head leaning against the window, but the soldier banged on the window to stop me from sleeping.

We got to Ofer Prison after about two hours. They put me and the detainee who was with me in a very small room, handcuffed and blindfolded. Women in the cell took our blindfolds off. My hands hurt a lot from the handcuffs. We called the guards to take us to the toilet, hoping they’d take the cuffs off. A female guard took us to the toilet and untied our hands. Then she tied our hands again, but didn’t tighten the handcuffs like before. I was very thirsty and drank from the tap in the toilets.

Then a male guard came and took me into interrogation. I was exhausted and asked for water. They gave me a little. The interrogator asked me about my studies, about university and about my political affiliation. I said I was just a medical physics student and didn’t have any political affiliation. Then he asked about what Hamas did, about raping Jewish women and killing children. I told him I didn’t know anything about that, and then he swore at me, threatened me and made baseless accusations. Then the guard took my fingerprints and a DNA sample and led me back to the cell.

Then they drove me, with some other detainees, to Hasharon Prison, where we were put in a small and very cold room. We sat there for a few hours, and then they took us to a very dirty cell. There were two filthy mattresses there. I stood, stunned, in a corner of the cell and felt disgusted and nauseous. I was too tired to stand, so I leaned against the wall. I couldn’t believe what was happening to me. We were hungry and thirsty, but the guards refused to bring us food and water.

There were six of us in this tiny room. We were very tired but couldn’t sleep. The guards brought us three small containers of sour cream and a few pieces of bread, which was barely enough. After we ate that, they didn’t bring us any more food until the next day at 3:00 P.M., when they gave us some bulgur. It tasted awful and we couldn’t eat it.

Then, I was taken with two other prisoners to a small, dirty room, though not as bad as the room we were in before. The toilet there was completely exposed. We asked for a mattress, and they brought us the same dirty mattress that was in the other room. We wiped it and cleaned it as much as we could and sat on it, because we had no choice.

On 30 October 2023, in the early afternoon, the female guards strip-searched us, fully naked, laughing at us as they did. Then they took me and two other detainees to Damun Prison. I got taken in for interrogation again. An officer interrogated me for about 10 minutes. He mostly threatened me and swore at me. Then I was taken to the women’s unit, which was very crowded. We could have a shower there, and the prisoners gave us clothes. But there was nothing to eat or drink there either, and no commissary. We were put in a very small cell. The whole time I was there, we hardly got any food, just a few pieces of bread. It was very cold. I kept shivering because there were no blankets.

After a few weeks, we heard there was an exchange deal. A few other detainees and I were told we were being released, and then we were strip-searched again and put in a very dirty room. I was taken into a room where an interrogator threatened me and my family and warned us not to have any celebrations. Then I was taken with five other women to Ofer Prison, where they put us in a very small cell for 12 hours. It was very cold there, and there was no toilet. They didn’t give us food that whole time. We were taken, one by one, to see Shin Bet interrogators. There were six interrogators there and they all spoke at the same time. It wasn’t an interrogation, just threats. They swore at me and threatened to take revenge on my family for what Hamas did near the Gaza border. Then we waited in a cell, handcuffed and blindfolded, until we were handed over to the Red Cross.

Ruqayah ‘Amru, 25, an Islamic Law MA student from Dura, Hebron District, said in her testimony:

On 26 October 2023, at around 1:00 A.M., I was at home with my mother and siblings. I saw out of the window a few military vehicles coming towards our house. I put on modest clothes quickly, and in the meantime soldiers started coming. My mother opened the door, and more than 10 male soldiers and two female soldiers immediately burst in. They told us to stay in the living room and searched the entire house. The officer spoke to us in Arabic and demanded our ID cards and phones.

He searched my phone and said I had another one and told me to go get it. I told him that was all I had. He led me, with the two female soldiers and some male soldiers, to my bedroom and asked me about my phone again. He shouted and turned over the furniture. After he calmed down a little, he asked me what I knew about what happened on October 7. I told him I only knew what was on the news, but he said I supported ISIS and Hamas and that I knew everything. They kept me in the room for almost an hour, during which they threatened me and shouted at me, and then they took me out to the street.

They handcuffed me and left me on the street for almost an hour, and then they put me in the jeep. The officer got into the jeep with a female soldier and then put his face right up to mine, yelled at me, swore at me and threatened me. He yelled that he was going to get out and leave me with the soldiers, so they would do to me what the Hamas people did to the Jewish women in southern Israel. I tried not to respond and not to answer him, because I was scared he would hit me or assault me some other way.

The officer got out of the jeep and took me back to my room. He told me he was arresting me. I asked to go to the bathroom, because I had my period and wanted to take a few pads, but he refused. The female officers handcuffed me tightly from behind. I asked a soldier to loosen the handcuffs a little, but she just yelled at me to shut up and blindfolded me. They took me back to the jeep and threw me inside it violently, and then sat me on the floor in between the benches. The soldiers who were sitting on the benches hit me, spat at me and swore at me.

After about 20 minutes, we got to a place that looked like a military base, where they kept on swearing at me and hitting me. After a few hours of abuse, they took me to Ofer Prison with a few other women. During that ride, too, the soldiers kicked and beat us, and every time we fell asleep or leaned against the side of the jeep, they banged on it. We asked for water, but they refused and yelled at us to shut up.

When we got to Ofer, a female guard took my handcuffs off. I couldn’t move my hands. It was like the blood froze in my veins. My hands were bleeding where the handcuffs were. The female guard strip-searched me and left me in a small, dirty room with a toilet. I asked the guard to get me pads, but she refused. Then she took me for questioning. There was an interrogator there who spoke Arabic. I asked him for water, but he refused. I told him I wouldn’t talk until they brought me water, so he brought me a glass with a little bit of water.

The interrogator showed me some posts and accused me of belonging to Hamas. I denied it and told him the posts weren’t mine. He asked me about what happened near the Gaza border, about women being raped and children murdered, burned and decapitated. I told him that our religion, Islam, does not allow such behavior and that I knew nothing about it except what we saw on social media. He said I was a liar and hurled accusations at me, but I denied everything. After about half an hour of shouting, threats and swearing, the interrogator told me to sign the interrogation transcript. Then they took me to be photographed, took my fingerprints and led me to a cell where there were more detainees.

We were all handcuffed. The room was dirty and very cold, and we were hungry. They kept us in that room until the evening, and then they took us to Hasharon Prison. On the ride, the soldiers yelled, sang and hit us on the head every time we fell asleep. When we arrived, we were put in a narrow, dirty cell. There were two filthy mattresses there. We wiped off some of the dirt and flipped them so we could sit on them. The whole time we were kept there, we had trouble sleeping. There was a tap in the room without water. We asked the guards to turn on the water so we could clean the room, and we also asked for water to drink because we were very thirsty, but they refused. We also asked them for sanitary pads, but they wouldn’t give us any. They didn’t give us food, either. It was only after about two days that they brought a little bread and sour cream, and we shared it. The next day, I asked one of the guards again to bring us sanitary pads, but she refused and swore at us. It was only on the third day that one of the male guards brought us pads. He also brought some bulgur that looked really bad, and we couldn’t eat it. We made do with the bread.

On 30 October 2023, we were taken to Damun Prison. The female guards took us all out of the room and then put us back in one by one. They told all of us to take all our clothes off and kept laughing and swearing at us and acting like we disgusted them. Then they took us in for interrogation one by one. They again asked about the events near the Gaza border and threatened to take revenge. When they finished interrogating all of us, they transferred us to the women’s unit, which was very full. There were nearly 60 prisoners there, and the number increased daily. They let us shower there. The prisoners gave us some light clothes. We were very cold. For the first two days they didn’t give us blankets, and during the whole time, they brought almost no food. When they did bring it, it was a very small amount and the food was bad.

On 30 November 2023, some guards came and took me and a few more detainees. They told us we were being released. Before they released me, they strip-searched me again, and an officer threatened me that if my family celebrated my release they would hurt us. Then we were transferred to Ofer Prison, where they kept us for about 12 hours without food or water in a small, dirty and smelly room. It was very cold there. After midnight, they handed us over to the Red Cross.