Detainees in Israel's Damon prison need hospital treatment: Rights group

The Prisoners Affairs Authority, a prisoner affairs watchdog, said that many female detainees held in Israel's Damon prison are in need of hospital treatment.

The watchdog says at least one of the 78 women held there suffers from cancer, another deals with difficult health conditions and two others are held in solitary confinement cells.

"Rooms are very narrow in comparison with the number of detainees," the authority said, adding that they are "unventilated" and that detainees receive insufficient amounts of food.

One third of the total number of detainees are held under the administrative detention, which is a controversial practice used by Israel to detain someone who has not committed a crime, under the pretext that they were planning to break the law in the future.