Israeli forces detain Palestinian women in West Bank raids

JERUSALEM (AP) 鈥� It was shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday when Abdelrahman Badr said he heard footsteps outside his home in Hebron in the Soon Israeli forces were at his door, he said. They were looking for his wife.

The forces took Itaf Badr, who serves on the board of a prominent health charity, and said she was wanted for questioning, driving her away in the dead of night, according to Abdelrahman.

She was one of five Palestinian women detained by Israeli security forces across the West Bank on Wednesday. The early morning raids targeted multiple cities, including Hebron, Ramallah, Nablus and Bethlehem, the women’s families and Palestinian rights groups said.

For most of Israel鈥檚 decades-long occupation, Palestinian men and boys have borne the brunt of the military鈥檚 effort to enforce it, and have been swept up in mass detentions or spent years in jail for throwing rocks at Israeli troops.

But security forces are detaining more women and girls, said Abdullah Al-Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, a nongovernmental organization that supports political prisoners in Israeli jails. He said gender is no longer a distinguishing factor in who the group believes Israel is targeting, from political activists to student leaders at Palestinian universities.

More women are being arrested

Women now make up a small but growing share of the roughly 9,300 Palestinians currently in detention, according to Israeli rights group Hamoked, which gets data from the Israel Prison Service.

The number of Palestinian women and girls in Israeli detention has more than doubled since the start of and increased 80% since the start of 2026. Fifteen have been arrested since the beginning of June, bringing the total to 99, according to Prisoners鈥� Club data.

Some of them were arrested after posting messages on social media, including ones that were critical of Israel鈥檚 occupation of the West Bank or the war in Gaza. Others were members of Palestinian political parties鈥� student branches at their universities, Al-Zaghari said.

Many have been imprisoned without formal charges under Israel鈥檚 administrative detention policy, which allows authorities to hold Palestinians for renewable periods of up to six months.

Last month, Israeli soldiers arrested at least five other young women, including four members of the Palestinian national soccer team and a 20-year-old Palestinian-American, Sama Saif.

The military said those women were suspected of 鈥減romoting terrorist activities.鈥� At least one has since been released. The others have not yet been charged, according to their attorneys. Saif’s arrest has drawn criticism from several U.S. senators, who have demanded her immediate release.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military referred questions about the arrests in Ramallah and Nablus to Israel’s Border Police, which also operates in the West Bank. It said it was checking for information on the arrest of Itaf in Hebron but did not respond to a request for comment on why she was detained.

Palestinian families say they don’t know why their relatives were detained

The relatives of the women who were detained early Wednesday said they were unsure why they were taken away.

In Nablus, Wael al-Faqih said his wife, Maiser al-Faqih, was arrested at home by Israeli forces. She is a former detainee and, like Itaf, was previously involved with the Union of Health Work Committees, a charity that provides medical care in low-income communities.

Israel has accused the group of ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which it has designated a terrorist organization. The charity denies the allegations.

鈥淲e still don鈥檛 know what it was about,鈥� Wael said in an interview. He said Israeli forces searched him and his son and then asked Maiser to put on her hijab before whisking her away.

Abdelrahman said he believed his wife Itaf’s work with the charity put her at risk. He told a similar story about her arrest.

First, she was taken outside and then handcuffed in the street.

鈥淚 looked at them from the window, they shouted at me and my son,鈥� he said. Then, 鈥渢hey grabbed her, blindfolded her and put her in the military vehicle.鈥�