Detainee Samar Sbeih is one of several female detainees who gave birth in Israeli prisons and remained imprisoned with their children. She was taken prisoner three months after her wedding, she was pregnant, and her husband was also taken prisoner.
Samar’s mother said that the Israeli Prison Authorities deprived her of the necessary medical tests, and when she was ready to give birth she was transferred to Kfar Saba hospital but the soldiers did not remove her handcuffs.
Samar underwent a caesarian procedure as she suffered complications while giving birth. The child, Bara’, also suffered complications and malnutrition as the mother was not provided with any special foods or vitamins to aide her while breastfeeding the child.
Her husband was recently freed; he stated that detained children and women should be freed in any prisoner swap deal between Israel and the Palestinian fighters who have been holding an Israeli soldier captive since June 2006. He added that women are subjected to provocative searches and that there are many newborn children detained with their mothers.
He also said that he does not believe that a prisoner swap deal will be carried out soon as a result of the Israeli preconditions. Bara’ is now 11 months old and his father has only been allowed to visit him once. Samar is still living day-by-day not knowing whether she will be freed in a prisoner swap deal, if such a deal is carried out.
Detainee Khawla Jasser also gave birth to her child, Ghada, in prison. She hopes that she will be one of the detainees who will be freed in the swap deal, but she is only one of several detained mothers and detained Palestinian women who are subjected to bad treatment and bad living conditions.
Several other detainees, such as Amna Mona, are confined to solitary cells, which are small and cold. These women are denied their basic rights. There are 10000 detainees imprisoned by Israel, among them dozens of women and children, in addition to female detainees who gave birth in prison.
