The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) announced on Saturday, that Israeli forces continue to detain a pregnant Palestinian woman, identified as Mrs. Bateel Khaled Abu Rajab, 30, from Yatta town, south of Hebron in the southern West Bank.
On Thursday, February 1, soldiers invaded the town and abducted the pregnant wife of Bakr Nabil Abu Rajab after breaking into their home, in addition to his brother, Musa Abu Rajab, an ambulance driver with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS).
In an attempt to coerce her husband to turn himself in to the army, soldiers took his wife hostage.
According to Ma’an News, Bakr, who is an ambulance driver with the (PRCS), surrendered himself to the occupation authorities at a later time.
As of February 3, the PPS reported that despite her husband’s abduction, occupation forces continued to detain Bateel, who is four months pregnant.
Israeli authorities transferred the detainee to the “Hasharon prison crossing”; there was no further information about her location at the time of writing this report.
In a statement on Saturday, the PPS said, “the occupation continues to escalate the arrest of citizens as hostages, including women, which constitutes a crime.”
On Monday, the PPS announced that, “the total number of arrests since the seventh of last October has risen to more than 6,540, and includes those who were arrested from homes, through military checkpoints, those who were forced to surrender themselves under pressure, and those who were held hostage.”
According to Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, 70 female prisoners continued to be held in Israeli occupation prisons as of February 5.
