Palestinian Prisoner’s Society

⭕️ Palestinian Mothers Behind Bars On Mother’s Day
⭕️ 39 Mothers Held by the Israeli Occupation in its Prisons

March 21, 2026 

Ramallah, occupied Palestine - As Mother’s Day is celebrated across the Arab world, dozens of Palestinian mothers are held behind bars by the Israeli occupation in prisons, barred from rejoicing with their families not just for Mother’s Day but the Eid al-Fitr holidays as well, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said Saturday. There are some 39 Palestinian mothers held in occupation prisons, among a total of 79 female political detainees. 

Most of them are held under “administrative detention” without trial or charge, or on the basis of what the occupation claims is “incitement” on social media, within a broader policy targeting the digital space as an additional tool of repression. This group includes mothers and sisters of killed Palestinian men, mothers of male and female prisoners, wives of male prisoners and former detainees. It also includes women working in vital sectors, among them journalists, teachers, lawyers, activists, doctors, academics, and homemakers.

The PPS affirms that imprisoned Palestinian mothers, like all other detainees, are subjected to a full system of severe violations, including torture, starvation, denial of medical care, and solitary confinement, in addition to systematic repression and abuse.

Since the start of the genocide in occupied Gaza, the occupation has escalated its violations against prisoners, continuing to prevent family visits and barring International Committee of the Red Cross teams from accessing them.

The PPS notes that hundreds of mothers have been detained across the occupied Palestinian territories since the beginning of the genocide, including women abducted from Gaza who were later released, among them elderly women—an indication of the widening scope of targeting.

On Mother’s Day, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society renews its assertion that targeting mothers through detention is but one aspect of a broader war on Palestinian existence. The PPS reiterates its call for pressure to secure the immediate release of female prisoners, to halt the organized violations against them, and to stop the escalating arrest campaigns targeting women at an unprecedented level since the beginning of the genocide.