Israel forces Palestinian female prisoners to remove hijab: report

Palestinian female detainees in Israeli prisons are being subjected to torture, including strip searches, and have been banned from wearing the hijab, rights groups confirmed.

The Palestinian Commission for Prisoners and Released Prisoners Affairs stated that these detainees endure “degrading and shocking conditions” under Israeli detention.

According to an Arab media report, the Israeli army confiscated hijabs, niqabs (face coverings), and jilbabs (loose smocks), forcing women to wear gray tracksuits instead.

These new restrictions were reportedly introduced by a newly-appointed prison director in response to the October 7 attacks on Israeli military bases by Hamas.

“What is happening with the female prisoners reflects an Israeli approach that increasingly disregards all recognized laws and regulations,” Commission head Qaddoura Fares told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. “The situation of female prisoners in Damon Prison has gone from bad to worse.”

The commission revealed that the 94 Palestinian female prisoners are held in conditions of near-darkness without access to adequate hygiene facilities.

Additionally, Israeli forces carry out frequent strip searches and routinely confiscate the detainees' belongings.

Many of these women are held without formal charges based on “secret evidence” which is inaccessible to their lawyers.

Since the October 7 attack, 11,500 Palestinians have been detained across the occupied West Bank, with numerous detainees held indefinitely without clear charges.