On Monday morning, 12 May, Asmaa Mohammed Sabaaneh (Abu al-Haija), liberated prisoner, the wife of imprisoned leader Sheikh Jamal Abu al-Haija, the mother of her imprisoned children Abdel-Salam, Asem and Banan (all held in administrative detention in Zionist jails) and Imad (held in PA political detention for 5+ months), and the martyr Hamza Abu al-Haija, passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer. Her passing comes just days after Banan Abu al-Haija, her daughter, was arrested by occupation forces on 7 May at Jabara checkpoint south of Tulkarem, while traveling to see her mother at the Istishari Hospital in Ramallah, where she was hospitalized. Banan was one of the major supports and caregivers for Asmaa, and she — alongside her brothers — were taken away from their mother in her last days, preventing them from bidding farewell to their beloved mother.
Asmaa, 61, was held in administrative detention for nine months in 2003. She battled serious illness for years; she underwent surgeries for brain tumors in 1992 and 1998 and she was hospitalized in 2014 at the time of her son Hamza’s martyrdom. His last words to her were to apologize for being unable to bring her a Mother’s Day gift because he was wanted by the occupation, the day before he was martyred. Over the years, Asmaa was prevented from traveling to Jordan to receive specialized treatment for her recurrent cancer; she was even prevented from visiting a French hospital in Jerusalem for surgery, even after she lost sight in her left eye.
On Wednesday, 7 May, Zionist occupation forces arrested Palestinian lawyer Banan Abu al-Haija — Asmaa’s daughter — as she passed through the illegitimate Jabara checkpoint south of occupied Tulkarem, in the West Bank of occupied Palestine to support her mother through ongoing cancer treatments.
Asmaa’s husband, Sheikh Jamal Abu al-Haija, is a Palestinian resistance leader and political prisoner serving 9 life sentences in occupation prisons, currently held in isolation alongside fellow leaders of the prisoners’ movement. One of the prominent leaders of the Hamas movement and a hero of the Jenin refugee camp battle of 2002, he has been imprisoned since August 2002, sentenced for his leadership of the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades in the northern West Bank.
Her eldest son, Abdel-Salam Abu al-Haija, has been imprisoned by the occupation regime in administrative detention, without charge or trial, since August 2022, under repeatedly renewed orders. Over multiple arrests, he has spent 15 years in occupation prisons and was also detained by the Palestinian Authority under “security coordination” for multiple months.
Her son, Asem Abu al-Haija, has been imprisoned by the occupation regime under administrative detention, with no charge or trial, since June 2023. He has spent over eight years in occupation prisons.
Her third son, Imad Abu al-Haija, has spent over seven years in occupation prisons, last released in April 2023. He is currently imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority under its “security coordination” with the occupation for over five months, held in Junaid prison since 3 December 2024, separated from his wife, their four children and his ill mother.
Banan Abu al-Haija, her elder daughter, a lawyer, was ordered to administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, just like her brothers, by 9 May 2025, just days after her arrest, almost seemingly timed to deprive her mother of her support in the last days of her life.
Hamza Abu al-Haija, the youngest son of Jamal and Asmaa, was assassinated by occupation forces after multiple years pursuing him. He resisted the occupation forces, which fired a missile at his apartment, until the last moment. He was martyred alongside two fellow resistance fighters, Yazan Jabarin and Mahmoud Abu Zeina, at dawn on 22 March 2014. He had been imprisoned by the occupation under administrative detention, and, upon his release, was imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority for one month. At the time of his assassination, he was wanted by both the occupation and the PA.
The Prisoners’ Media Office said on her passing, “The mother of martyrs and prisoners has departed, but she left behind a legacy of pride and dignity, and a family and home that continues to embody the ongoing Palestinian epic of captivity and martyrdom.”
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its mourning and salutes, and extends its condolences to the Abu al-Haija family and the Palestinian people on the passing of Asmaa, a symbol of steadfastness in Jenin and throughout Palestine, a liberated prisoner, lifelong struggler, wife of a prisoner and a leader serving nine life sentences in occupation prisons, and the mother of martyrs and prisoners.
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