The Israeli occupation has detained around 16,350 Palestinian women since its colonial occupation of Palestine in 1948, a Palestinian human rights advocate has said. 

Riyad al-Ashqar explained that detaining Palestinian women and girls is a new-old policy adopted by the Israeli occupation since it conquered Palestine in 1948. 

However, the Israeli occupation has accelerated such policy and used it as a form of collective punishment since the outbreak of the 2000 Second Intifada, detaining nearly 2,900 Palestinian women and girls since then, 30 of whom are still languishing in harsh and inhumane conditions in Israeli occupation prisons. 

The Israeli occupation has often detained Palestinian women and girls to blackmail their male relatives into turning themselves in or to pressure their detained relatives into making a confession or providing intelligence, explained al-Ashqar. 

Al-Ashqar pointed out that most detentions took place in occupied Jerusalem, particularly at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in a bid to dissuade Palestinian women from defending the Muslim sacred site.   

All female Palestinian detainees are now being held in tragic conditions in "Damon" prison, where they are systematically subjected to human rights abuses and ill-treatment. 

Israeli occupation prison guards regularly carry out raids in "Damon" jail, during which they conduct humiliating searches, beat Palestinian women detainees, and attack them with tear gas and pepper spray. 

Meanwhile, the Israeli prison administration denies detained Palestinian women and girls their right to access health care by procrastinating their regular and diagnostic medical checkups and not providing medicines for injured and sick detainees. 

The Israeli jail authorities also prevent them from making phone calls while imposing excessive restrictions on family visits. 

According to Palestinian prisoners' rights groups, the Israeli occupation is holding some 4,780 Palestinian detainees, including approximately 160 children, 30 women, and 914 people under administrative detention without charge.