Young women in Gaza. Photo: www.actalliance.org.

Al-Monitor recently gained access to Gaza’s only all-female prison, and what the website found was a detention center filled overwhelmingly with women serving out sentences for what the rulers of Gaza call “moral” crimes such as sex outside of marriage.

According to the report, “criminals in the prison are divided into three categories: thieves, security convicts of crimes often related to cooperating with Israel and “moral” convicts, which includes prostitution or sexual relations without marriage. This final category holds the largest number of prisoners.”

The head of the prison, Jazya Abu Mousa, also told Al-Monitor that most of the women “are detained and not sentenced” so the number of prisoners “changes from time to time…”

Abu Mousa said this year has witnessed the largest number of female prisoners since she began working there in 2007.