One of four female Palestinian students detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank is suffering from health complications but remains behind bars, her family and a prisoners' organisation have said. Sama Safi was one of four students from Birzeit University detained during Israeli military raids in Ramallah on Tuesday, which saw the arrest of 35 Palestinians in total.
According to spokesperson for the Palestinian Prisoners' Society, Amani Sarhanneh, they were transferred to the notorious Israeli Ofer Prison.
Safi holds US citizenship, and her family has said she is suffering from health problems. The New Arab reached out to the US State Department for comment.
The three other students are Natalie Abu Diya, Jolan Abu Awwad, and Laila Nael Khalil. Lives at risk Doctors Against Genocide (DAG), a global coalition of healthcare professionals and human rights advocates, released a statement on Friday demanding the students' immediate release.
The group warned that the young women "face an immediate and severe risk of torture, psychological abuse, and sexual violence while held incommunicado without independent international oversight."
Citing the UN’s recent blacklisting of Israel over conflict-related sexual violence, DAG warned that the threat to the students is underscored by the systematic and documented patterns of abuse within the Israeli prison system.
"As a physician, I am gravely alarmed that four young women students are being held in a detention system where secrecy, isolation, and documented abuse place their bodies, mental health, dignity, and lives at immediate risk," said Dr. Karameh Kuemmerle, co-founder of DAG.
"The threat of torture, sexual violence, forced nudity, and psychological coercion must be treated as a medical emergency, not only after harm occurs, but now, while prevention is still possible," he added.
Urging for them to be granted protection and independent medical and legal access, Dr. Kuemmerle pressed for the four students' release without delay.
The coalition called on the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, global academic institutions, and human rights organisations to help secure the girls’ release. It also called on the US State Department to intervene in Safi’s case. Uptick in arrests Sarhanneh of the Palestinian Prisoners' Society said Israel had intensified arrests targeting university students since the war on Gaza began in October 2023.
She said the key change is not the arrests themselves, but the level of abuse faced by Palestinian detainees.
Detaining students is intended to undermine their right to education and freedom of expression, Sarhanneh said, adding that Palestinians are demanding only the right of students to continue their education safely and uninterrupted.
The club said the number of Palestinian female prisoners in Israeli jails rose to 89 with the recent students' arrest, including three minors, three pregnant women, 19 administrative detainees, and two prisoners with cancer.
It added that Israel has arrested more than 760 Palestinian women since the onslaught in Gaza, and that female prisoners face harsh detention conditions, including starvation, medical neglect, solitary confinement, and repeated assaults.
Since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, Israeli detentions in the occupied West Bank have spiked. Palestinian official figures say around 23,000 Palestinians have been detained during that period.