Nablus Woman Describes Six-Month Pregnancy and Cesarean Section Inside Israeli Detention

Dana Joudeh was blindfolded, her hands and feet chained, when a hospital pregnancy test came back positive. The 35-year-old from Nablus had been arrested by Israeli forces without charges days earlier and placed under administrative detention, the open-ended legal mechanism Israel uses to hold Palestinians without trial. She had collapsed in front of soldiers at Sharon Prison in Netanya; they took her to the hospital still in restraints.

From that point, according to an account she gave The Intercept through her sister Maram, Joudeh remained in Israeli custody for the entirety of her pregnancy, roughly six months, until a premature cesarean section.

Joudeh was soon transferred to Damon Prison in Haifa. There, her sister and her lawyer Hassan Abbadi said, she shared a cell with 13 other women, including Manar Karaja, another pregnant detainee. The two discussed baby names. According to Amany Sarahneh, media director of the Palestinian Prisoners' Society, Karaja remained pregnant and in detention as of October 6.

Food, Maram and Abbadi said, was scarce: a slice of toast, lentils, chickpeas or hummus, occasionally a few olives. Other women in the cell gave Joudeh portions of their own rations.

"I needed vitamins and folic acid, but they refused to give them to me," Maram relayed on her sister's behalf.

Joudeh said she repeatedly requested medical testing to confirm the fetus was healthy and was refused. She described monitoring the pregnancy herself, by feel.

"I would reassure myself by the baby's heartbeat, and later, when I started feeling her move," she said, according to Maram.

Abbadi, who provides volunteer legal support to detained Palestinian women and visits prisons regularly, said Israeli forces used sound grenades inside the facility and forced women to lie face down on the floor. He described broader patterns of mistreatment of female detainees, including strip searches, dog attacks, and shortages of basic supplies like underwear. The Intercept was unable to independently verify these specific incidents beyond Abbadi's account and that of Joudeh's family.

An Israel Prison Service spokesperson told The Intercept the agency could not comment on individual detainees' cases but described Joudeh's account as false. The Israeli military referred inquiries to the Prison Service.

Palestinian prisoners' rights advocates say Joudeh is only the second documented case of a woman giving birth while in Israeli custody in nearly 17 years. The first known case dates to 1972, when Zakia Shammout gave birth to her daughter Nadia at Neve Tirza prison in Ramla, assisted by fellow prisoners. Advocates believe additional cases may have gone unreported.

As of September, Israel held roughly 9,350 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including 90 women and more than 350 children, according to Palestinian prisoners' organizations. More than 3,100 are held under administrative detention, without charge or trial, the same mechanism used to hold Joudeh.