GAZA, (PIC)– During the cold spells every winter, the freed prisoner Fatima Al-Zak sadly remembers the female prisoners in the Israeli jails who had never been warm during that cold season.
Fatima had endured the freezing cold in the Israeli dungeons for more than 6 years, which led her to suffer from chronic diseases.
Difficult conditions
Captive Fatima told the PIC reporter that she lived six bitter years in prison, during which she experienced the wrench of the throes of childbirth, while she was tied up. She was deprived of the most basic human rights.
She said that “the suffering of the female prisoners is very difficult, especially when they are pregnant or have a baby.”
She added: “When I feel cold, I find myself crying on the conditions of male and female prisoners; I experienced myself the suffering of imprisonment in all its details, the suffering increases in the winter; where prisoners don’t have the simplest things to keep them warm”. She pointed out that the extreme cold in captivity caused her peripheral neuropathy; a disease in the nerves that raises the sense of pain, especially in winter.
She said that female prisoners are not provided with enough or warm blankets, and are prevented from getting winter clothing, which increase their suffering.
She noted that despite the freezing cold in the Israeli prisons, female prisoners share their covers and clothes with the new captives.
She stressed that the conditions of the female prisoners need serious intervention at all levels; as they are deprived of the most basic human rights.
No life
Fatima went further recalling the prison suffering saying: “We were eight prisoners in a small room which had only a very small window blocked by iron bars, so we were deprived of sunlight, and there was no heating; which made the room like a refrigerator.”
She pointed out that female prisoners are deprived of good food and warm drinks. She added: “The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) was providing eight prisoners with only two tomatoes, though, my mate prisoners used to give me their share of the tomatoes because I was pregnant, and in need of adequate nutrition. “
She charged the prison administration with deliberately broke into the rooms for inspection especially in the extreme cold, which increased their suffering.
Physical Pain
She pointed out that the female prisoners were deprived of medicine and there was no female gynecologist to treat them, which aggravated their heath conditions.
She noted that she was not provided with good food after giving birth, but her prison mates were offering her their food so that she could breastfeed her child, Yusuf.
She explained that she used recitation of the holy Quran and praying in the treatment of her child when he got sick, because there was no pediatrician, and there was no care for children, instead they were treated by the IPS as prisoners.
Fatima was released on 30-9-2009 in an agreement to release 20 Palestinian female prisoners in exchange for information about the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was a captive with the Palestinian resistance at the time.