On Monday, 5 August, Wafa Jarrar, 50, was martyred in Jenin, dying of her injuries caused by the colonial occupation Zionist army when they invaded her home two months earlier on 21 May, abducting her and throwing her into a military jeep when an explosion in the jeep severely injured her legs. The Zionist military then took her to the hospital, where both of her legs were amputated at the thighs, without seeking her consent or that of her family. Her husband, Abdel-Jabbar Jarrar, has been imprisoned since February; he is jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention.
Despite her severe injuries, she was initially ordered to 4 months in administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. However, in order so as not to be held responsible for her health condition, the occupation forces released her 10 days later, on 30 May. During that time, her family was told that she was in a coma in a Zionist hospital, and also deliberately misled her family by providing incomplete and misleading information about her health condition at some times, while blocking all information at other times.
Upon her release, she was transferred to the intensive care unit at Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin in critical condition. Her doctors found that she suffered from fractures of her rib cage, a fracture of the 12th vertebra of the spine as well as the amputation of her legs; her left lung was also infected due to an accumulation of blood inside it. Although she remained in intensive care, her severe injuries led to further ulcers and infections. She received additional surgery and antibiotics, but her condition continued to worsen until she passed away on 5 August.
The occupation retained Wafa Jarrar’s amputated legs, refusing to return them to the family to bury with the rest of her body, instead saying they were “discarded,” in offense to Islamic funeral traditions.
Wafa Nayef Zuhdi Jarrar (Umm Hudhayfah) was born in 1974 in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, Palestine. She married Abdel Jabbar Muhammad Ahmed Jarrar, a leader of the Hamas movement, on February 22, 1990, and they had four children, Hudhayfah, Taqwa, Amjad and Zaytouna.
A well-known and beloved activist and educator, she was the coordinator of the Association of Families of Martyrs and Prisoners of Jenin Governorate. She was widely respected in the city of Jenin in particular and in the cities of the West Bank in general and was known for her committed participation in solidarity vigils demanding the liberation of the prisoners and the return of the bodies of the martyrs held by the Zionist state.
In 2021, she was a candidate on the Hamas list in the legislative elections, Jerusalem is Our Promise, before the Palestinian Authority canceled the elections.
She also held a bachelor’s degree in Arabic language teaching methods and completed her master’s degree in Arabic language at An-Najah University.
Wafa Jarrar’s husband, Abdul Jabbar Jarrar, is an organizer in the resistance movement in Jenin Governorate. At a young age, he participated in protests against the occupation forces and was active in the Islamic Bloc while studying at Al Khalil University. He joined the Hamas movement immediately after its founding in 1987. In total, he was arrested 30 times and spent about 16 years in Zionist prisons.
He has been in administrative detention since last February. On 5 August, only hours after the announcement of his wife’s martyrdom, the occupation forces declared that they were renewing his administrative detention was renewed for 6 additional months. (Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable.)
A huge crowd accompanied Wafa Jarrar’s funeral procession in Jenin, accompanying the martyr one last time. In other cities in occupied Palestine, rallies and initiatives in her honour were organized, including at Bir Zeit University, where student organizations marched, carrying her portrait.
Saadia Farajallah and Israa Jaabis: two precedents of this policy of deliberate medical negligence
This policy of deliberate medical neglect has already caused death and serious injury among Palestinian female prisoners, the two most egregious recent examples being those of Saadia Farajallah and Israa Jaabis.
Saadia Farajallah was arrested on December 18, 2021, while she was passing through the city of Al Khalil to visit her daughter. The colonial army accused the 68-year-old woman of attempting to stab a 38-year-old settler from the illegal settlement of “Kiryat Arba” in front of the Ibrahimi Mosque. Attacked by a group of settlers and held at gunpoint by Zionist soldiers, she was violently taken to an interrogation center. From the time of her arrest until her martyrdom, her family was prevented from visiting her.
On July 2, 2022, while performing her ablutions in the colonial prison of Damon, Saadia Farajallah lost consciousness. She was carried by her fellow prisoners to the prison clinic where she would fall a martyr.
Her condition deteriorated very quickly after her arrest. At her trial she appeared in a wheelchair, unable to walk. During the hearing, her lawyers demanded that she be given access to a specialist doctor, as she was clearly already suffering from health problems. Instead of receiving the medical care she needed, the military court sentenced her to 5 years in prison and a fine of 15,000 shekels. It was this policy of deliberate medical neglect in the colonial prisons that caused her martyrdom, as it caused the martyrdom of Walid Daqqah, Khaled Al Shawish, Nasser Abu Hmeid, Khader Adnan, Asif Al Rifai and many others of the 258 Palestinian prisoners murdered by the Zionist state in its prisons.
Israa Jaabis, an educator and social worker from Jerusalem, was arrested on October 11, 2015. That day, as she was returning home, an electrical fault in her car’s airbag caused a fire as she approached a colonial army checkpoint. While she was trapped in the burning car, a bus driver came to her aid and managed to open the door. Severely burned, she asked for help from the Zionist soldiers who rushed to the scene. But instead, Israa was held face down by the soldiers, while her burns continued to worsen.
15 minutes later, the ambulance arrives but it is too late. Held on the ground by constraint, burned alive, Israa is seriously injured: the educator has suffered first, second and third degree burns on more than 60% of her body. She is transferred to the hospital where she will have eight fingers amputated. Her face is partially disfigured by the burns: her ears are stuck to her head. She has great difficulty breathing through her nose and has serious respiratory problems. She often suffers from major attacks during which she says she feels like she is burning from the inside. Her lower lip having melted, she cannot drink and eat as before, she needs a straw and a special cup because she has great difficulty moving her hands .
She was immediately arrested and placed in detention. At the end of the trial she was sentenced to eleven years in prison and a fine of 50,000 shekels.
Before her accident she worked in a retirement home and used to do activities with the residents. She also volunteered in several associations, in hospitals, schools, etc., where she dressed as a clown to entertain the children.
In prison, her fellow prisoners, who took care of her every day, making sure she lacked nothing and monitoring her condition as best they could, described her as a loving friend full of love and joy, who always welcomed the new prisoners as best as possible. Many spoke of the fact that she worried about each of them and that despite her condition she remained filled with a superhuman strength of character.
Saturday, November 25, thanks to the exchange agreement obtained by the struggle and offensive of the Palestinian Resistance and the immense sacrifice of the population of Gaza, Israa Jaabis was freed from Zionist prisons. That day, in infinite joy, her son, Mu’tasim , who had not been able to see her for more than 6 years, finally welcomed his mother, after a separation that will have left a significant trauma in the family.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network extends our deepest condolences to the family, loved ones and comrades of Wafa Jarrar, and the Palestinian people as a whole. May she watch over the living and guide their steps along the long path to liberation. May the sweetest rest be granted to her, may the infinite love of her people ease the pain of her loved ones. Glory to the martyrs, liberation for the prisoners, victory for the resistance, in a free Palestine from the river to the sea.
