Occupation renews administrative detention of Abdul-Jabbar Jarrar on the first anniversary of his wife’s martyrdom

On 5 August 2025, occupation forces ordered Abdul-Jabbar Jarrar, 64, of Jenin — jailed for 18 months with no charge and no trial under repeatedly renewed “administrative detention” orders — to another 6 months of imprisonment without charge or trial on the basis of a “secret file.” His administrative detention renewal also marked the one-year anniversary of his wife, Wafa’ Jarrar, mother and social activist in Jenin, who was martyred due to her injuries and medical neglect received when she was abducted from their family home in May 2024.

Throughout her injuries, her arrest, her release and her martyrdom, Abdul-Jabbar was separated from Wafa’ and prevented from bidding her farewell. Now, his administrative detention was renewed precisely on this painful anniversary by the occupation. In May, Abdul-Jabbar Jarrar was diagnosed with scabies, the skin disease which has been deliberately allowed to run rampant in Zionist prisons, with Palestinian detainees denied proper medical care and access to basic sanitary supplies.

He is currently held in the Naqab desert prison and his health has seriously deteriorated; he has lost over half of his weight due to the starvation policy imposed upon the Palestinian prisoners as a systematic attempt at “slow assassination” during his imprisonment.

A leader in the Hamas movement, Abdul-Jabbar Jarrar has been arrested 32 times by the occupation and has spent over 16 years in occupation prisons, many of those years in repeated administrative detention orders. 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.

Wafa’ Jarrar, 50, was martyred on 5 August 2024 after being abducted from their home in Jenin. She and Abdul-Jarrar were the parents of four children — Hudhayfah, Taqwa, Amjad, and Zaytouna. The occupation army invaded her home, beat her, fracturing 11 of her ribs, and threw 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.

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.

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.”

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.

On 5 August 2024, Abdul-Jabbar’s administrative detention order expired; the occupation could have released him to reunite with their children and mourn his wife. Instead, they renewed it for another 6 months on the day of her martyrdom — and have renewed it since then, and now once more on the anniversary of that painful date.

The case of Abdul-Jabbar and Wafa’ Jarrar illustrates the systematic policy of medical neglect, torture, abuse and starvation directed against the Palestinian prisoners as an official policy of the Zionist regime. Infamous fascist Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Minister of Public Security, has ordered these policies directed against the over 10,800 Palestinians held in Zionist jails — leading to the martyrdom of at least 76 Palestinian prisoners since 7 October 2023 (including 20-year-old Ahmad Tazaz’a on 3 October), not to mention the systematic torture, sexual and physical assault, psychological torture, starvation and denial of medical care to Palestinian prisoners held in Sde Teiman, Anatot and the other infamous military torture camps.

To the contrary of this policy, the Palestinian resistance has cared for its prisoners of war — despite them being occupation soldiers colonizing Palestine, as opposed to an occupied people with the right to resist — with the highest standards of care and morality. When the occupation soldiers are subjected to the same standards of starvation imposed upon the Palestinian people in Gaza as a whole as part and parcel of the genocide, eating the same rations as the Palestinian fighters holding them, the Zionist regime demands an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council. Imperialist politicians from around the world denounce the starvation of the Zionist prisoners of war, while remaining unmoved to take action to end the forced, engineered starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza or even imposing an arms embargo on the Zionist regime.

In honor of Abdul-Jabbar Jarrar, Wafa’ Jarrar, all of the martyrs, the prisoners, the resistance, and the Palestinian people of Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine and in exile, it is long past time for meaningful action.

The real crisis of prisoners suffering starvation, mistreatment and abuse is taking place on a daily basis for over 10,800 Palestinians — and Lebanese and Syrians — in Zionist prisons, requiring action and mobilization; alongside the 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip subjected to an all-out genocide through bombing, mass starvation, destruction of health facilities, organized ethnic cleansing and outright massacres on a daily basis.

We demand the disarmament of the Zionist entity; a total two-way arms embargo; a full boycott in military, diplomatic, economic, academic, cultural, and sports arenas; prosecution of the genocidaires in international and Palestinian courts; the complete withdrawal of Zionist forces from Gaza, all of occupied Palestine, Lebanon and Syria; and the liberation of all of the Palestinian, Lebanese, and Syrian prisoners in Zionist, imperialist and reactionary prisons jailed for resisting genocide, occupation and colonialism. 

We must stand up for the martyrs, and for the imprisoned martyrs that the occupation continues to jail after death, and witness for them. Stand up for the wounded, for the health care workers fighting to save lives under the bombs. Stand up for the heroic resistance fighting every day for a free Palestine. Stand up for the prisoners, confronting the occupier daily behind bars, holding fast to freedom.

• Confront the arms factories that trade with the occupation or are owned directly by occupation companies — like Elbit Systems — with blockades and direct action. Shut down the economy of genocide.
• Besiege the embassies of the occupation and its complicit imperialist partners. Shut them down and make it impossible for them to carry out their genocidal business. 
• Shut down streets, government buildings and institutions of the imperial core. The genocide is an emergency. Every day, Palestinians are being massacred and it is clear that the imperialist states will not exert pressure for the genocide to end unless their own interests are on the line directly. 
• Continue the escalations at the embassies of complicit Arab reactionary regimes. These regimes must be concerned about their own futures in order to create counter-pressure to the Zionists and imperialists. 

Wherever you are, organize, escalate and act. Ramp up our organizing and our mobilization, be louder, more visible, and create a greater obstruction for the business of the war machine. It is clear that the genocide will not end so long as its perpetrators enjoy impunity; if we cannot rely or wait for the courts, we must impose popular accountability through action. 

The Palestinian resistance is today on the front lines defending Gaza, Palestine, the Arab nation, the Islamic world, and all of humanity. Our actions must live up to the example they set every day, to end the human-made famine, end the starvation, end the genocide — and fight for a free Palestine, from the river to the sea.