The ministry said there are 43 Palestinian women prisoners serving their terms in the prisons of Al-Damon in Haifa and the Hasharon (Telmond), a central Israeli prison located between Tel Aviv and Netanya. It added that the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), “refuses to place the married women with their husbands in accordance with the Israeli law that allows the prisoner to meet his jailed wife every six months.”

The ministry said Irena Sarahneh, of Ukrainian origin, is barred from meeting her husband Ibrahim Sarahneh. Irena is serving a life sentence for assisting her husband Ibrahim and a suicide bomber to carry out the 2002 attack in the Israeli town of Rishon Lezion. Ibrahim is serving three life sentences in Al-Damon prison for driving the bomber to the site.

The ministry said that Ahlam Al-Tamimi is also barred from meeting her husband Nizar Al-Tamimi who is serving a life sentence. It added that the Nilli Al-Safadi is also barred from meeting her blind husband Ali Bilal in Majido prison.

According to the ministry, Iman Ghazawi, who is serving a 13-year prison term, is also barred from being placed with her husband Shaher Barakat who is serving a 20-year prison term.

The ministry said that the IPS also refuses to put Palestinian siblings in the same prison.

The women prisoners said that they would petition the Israeli courts to be allowed to be with their husbands.

They also called on local, international human rights organizations and media agencies to “highlight their issue.”

Ten days ago, the Palestinian woman prisoner Lanan Abu Ghilmeh suspended her twenty-day hunger strike to protest the Israeli decision not be placed in the same prison with her sister Taghreed.