A female Palestinian prisoner is set to give birth in prison while awaiting trial, in reportedly the first such incident in nearly a decade and a half.
Anhar Al-Deek, 25, was arrested on March 8 over alleged stabbing attack at the illegal Israeli farming outpost outside the Palestinian town of Ras Karkar in the central West Bank.
Al-Deek was already pregnant at the time of her arrest. As she has neared her due date in Israeli prison, her story has swamped Palestinian social media.
The hashtag “Save Anhar al-Deek” trended in Arabic multiple times, and articles about her have been disseminated widely in Arabic-language media.
In an impressive letter sent last week, Al-Deek voiced her fear of giving birth in prison, as she talked about her sufferings during imprisonment.
The last Palestinian woman to give birth while in Israeli prison was Gaza resident Fatima al-Ziq in 2008, according to a report by the official Palestinian WAFA news agency.
Source: Israeli and Palestinian media
