On Saturday, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) reported that the Palestinian woman, the oldest female detainee imprisoned by Israel, died in an Israeli prison less than seven months after Israeli soldiers abducted her.
The PPS said that Sa’diyya Farajallah, 68, from Ethna town west of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, died at the ad-Damoun Israeli prison and added that the circumstances that led to her death remain unknown.
The PPS stated that Farajallah, a married mother of eight, was the oldest Palestinian female detainee in Israeli prisons and that she was abducted by the Israeli soldiers on December 18, 2021, near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, after she was injured when many illegal Israeli colonizers attacked her.
The Israeli authorities prevented her family from visiting her throughout her imprisonment; she died at the Damoun Israeli prison.
The woman had diabetes and high blood pressure and was taking medications before she was taken, prisoner.
Akram Samara, a lawyer of the Palestinian Detainees Committee, said he saw her last time last Tuesday in court, adding that she was in a wheelchair, unable to speak, and looked very fragile.
Samara said the Israeli authorities refused to provide medical reports detailing her health condition and were denying her the right to medical treatment during her imprisonment.
Her brother, Taiseer Farajallah, demanded an autopsy to know the cause of death and added that the soldiers repeatedly struck and beat his sister, after they claimed she tried to stab a colonizer, near the Ibrahimi Mosque while she was on her way to visit her two married daughters, living in the Old City of Hebron.
“My sister was a woman who struggled to provide for her family despite the dire financial situation,” Taiseer stated.
Sa’diyya’s son, Mohammad, described what happened to his mother as a crime and that his family was not allowed to visit her, adding that when they saw her in court and were not allowed to talk to her, she looked very weak and extremely ill, even unable to speak.
Her death brings the number of detainees who died in Israeli prisons since 1967 to 230.
Sa’diyya was among twenty-nine female detainees, including Maysoun Mousa from Bethlehem, who was taken prisoner in 2015 and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, in addition to Shorouq al-Badan and Bushra Tawil, who are held under the Administrative Detention orders without charges or trial.
Israel is also still holding captive ten Palestinian mothers and a female child Nofouth Hammad, 15, who was tortured during interrogation.
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah held Israel responsible for her death and called on the International Community to investigate her death and ensure the release of all female detainees, children, elders, and ailing political prisoners.
