Asmaa Sabaaneh (Abu Al-Haija), liberated prisoner and the wife and mother of prisoners and martyrs, passed away on the morning of 12 May 2025 after a lengthy battle with cancer, in the Istishari Hospital in Ramallah. She passed away deprived of five of her children and her husband, Sheikh Jamal Abu Al-Haija; three of her sons and her daughter Banan are imprisoned alongside their father, and her son Hamza was martyred in 2014.
Asmaa’s passing comes just days after her daughter, Palestinian lawyer Banan Abu Al-Haija, was arrested by occupation forces at a checkpoint as she was driving to see her mother in the hospital on 7 May 2025. Banan was one of Asmaa’s closest caregivers who saw and supported her daily. She was ordered to administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, just two days later, just as two of her brothers are held. Asmaa herself had been held in administrative detention for seven months in 2003.
Asmaa’s husband is Sheikh Jamal Abu Al-Haija, a Palestinian political prisoner and resistance leader serving 9 life sentences in occupation prisons. He is currently held in isolation alongside other leaders of the prisoners’ movement. A leader of the Hamas movement and a hero of the Jenin refugee camp battle of 2002, he served as the leader of the Izz el-Din Al-Qassam Brigades in the northern West Bank of occupied Palestine prior to his arrest.
Asmaa and Jamal’s elder sons, Abdel-Salam and Asem, are both held, like her daughter Banan, in administrative detention, without charge or trial. Abdel-Salam, who has served over 15 years total in occupation prisons, has been detained under repeatedly renewed orders since August 2022; Asem, who has served over 8 years total, has been detained under repeatedly renewed orders since June 2023.
Asmaa and Jamal’s son Imad has spent over 7 years in occupation prisons, mostly in administrative detention. He was released for the last time in April 2023. Like his sister Banan, he played an important role in supporting Asmaa’s care. However, he has now been imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority under its “security coordination” with the occupation since December 2024, held in Junaid prison for over 5 months as a political prisoner.
Asmaa and Jamal’s youngest son, Hamza Abu Al-Haija, was martyred in 2014. He and two of his comrades, Yazan Jabarin and Mahmoud Abu Zeina, were targeted for assassination. They had been pursued by the occupation forces for multiple years. At dawn on 22 March, occupation forces fired a missile at their apartment as they resisted. He had been detained on multiple occasions by both the occupation and the Palestinian Authority.
Over the years, Asmaa was denied permission to travel abroad or even to Jerusalem to receive specialized medical care. She was stripped of her beloved children and her husband, all deprived of a final farewell by imprisonment and the occupation. Throughout her life of struggle, she has become a symbol of steadfastness, strength and sacrifice, dedicating her life to her people and her land.
