Thursday, 18 June 2026 — Palestine will be free
“I was beaten in the hell of al-Moskobiya. They took me into the bathroom and the female guards started beating me after a full strip search.”
Palestinian writer Lama Khater, who has been detained since March 23, 2026, has described harrowing abuses endured by women held in Israeli rape and torture dungeons, detailing systematic acts of beatings, strip searches, dragging, humiliation, and deprivation.
Khater, a mother of five children and a grandmother of one, was abducted by the Israelis on the third day of Eid al-Fitr during an Israeli raid on her Hebron home. She was held in the al-Moskobiya dungeon for 22 days before being transferred for a day to Ramla Prison and then to Damon, where she is presently detained.
“I was beaten in the hell of al-Moskobiya,” she told her lawyer, Hassan Abadi, during his visit to Damon Prison. “They took me into the bathroom and the female guards started beating me after a full strip search.”
The Israelis have regularly subjected Palestinian female detainees to humiliating strip searches and deprived them of their head coverings. Khater recounted undergoing this familiar degrading treatment. “They asked me to take off my hijab for the photograph, and of course I refused,” she said. “They forcibly removed my hijab and photographed me.”
Khater revealed that the Israelis physically abused her during a transfer for a hearing: “They dragged me while I was shackled, with my head forced downward in a kneeling position, accompanied by insults the entire time.”
Khater described the night she spent in Ramla Prison as “catastrophic,” explaining that she was held alone in a cell equipped with surveillance cameras, including one inside the bathroom. She said she was unable to sleep or use the toilet throughout the night because of the harsh conditions and the insect infestation.
Testimonies from female detainees have frequently revealed regular violent crackdowns by the Israelis. Khater described one such violent suppression at Damon: “In the yard, our hands were tied behind our backs and we were sitting on our knees. My legs felt as if they were paralysed. They dragged us roughly, and we are still suffering from it to this day.”
Female Palestinian detainees subjected to violent raids, solitary confinement, and starvation
Khater, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Arabic language from Hebron University, affirmed that crackdowns have become almost daily and that many female detainees are transferred to punishment cells for no reason, noting that she spent ten consecutive days without being allowed out for recreation time. She added that suppression units use severe violence during raids, along with stun grenades and police dogs. Female detainees are blindfolded and their hands tied behind their backs before being thrown to the ground inside the cells or in the prison yards.
The Israelis have also been abusing Palestinians by confining them in overcrowded dungeons with barely enough space to sleep properly. Khater said that four detainees in her room are forced to sleep on the floor, while in some other rooms as many as eight detainees sleep on the floor.
She also complained about the short duration of the daily recreation period, saying it was insufficient for all the detainees to bathe, and about the severe shortage of summer clothing. She noted that many detainees are forced to wear their prayer robes while waiting for their clothes to dry after washing them.
The food provided to the detainees is insufficient and lacks nutritional value, forcing many detainees to go to sleep hungry. Khater explained that breakfast consists of two spoonfuls of yogurt and one spoonful of chocolate spread, while lunch is a limited amount of rice with chickpeas or lentils. Dinner is limited to one egg, a small amount of chickpeas or tahini, and sometimes a little soup. “The girls go to sleep hungry… We save the food until sunset so that we can try to feel full,” she added.
Palestinian women subjected to torture, sexual abuse, and medical neglect in Israeli prisons
Khater, who works as a journalist and writer, has been detained multiple times by the Israelis for her work. She was detained in the post-October 2023 crackdown by the genocidal Israelis in the West Bank before being released as part of the prisoner exchange between the Palestinian resistance and the Israelis in November 2023.
Following her release, Khater described violent repression in the Israeli dungeons as well as threats to rape and kill her and burn her house down. “They threatened to kill me, my family, burn my house down,” she told Al-Jazeera at the time.
The New Dark Age 
Leave a comment