Jailed Palestinian Fathered Second Child with Smuggled Sperm

For the second time in three years, a man serving a 24-year term in an Israeli prison has fathered a child from sperm successfully smuggled to his wife. Yahya Harmasha, 40, from the West Bank town of Tulkarem, and his wife Samira, had a baby girl three years ago after smuggling Yahya’s sperm out of the Ktziot prison in the southern Negev desert region. Palestinians were elated by news of the baby’s birth, hailing it as a victory over the Israeli authorities under whose noses the sperm was smuggled…twice.