Israeli officials arrested a prominent Palestinian protester, 22-year-old Ahed Tamimi, for allegedly "inciting terrorism."
Tamimi's arrest was announced on Monday after a series of overnight raids and fighting in the occupied West Bank. Violence has started to spill over into the territory since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict last month.
Ahed Tamimi's Arrest
Zein Basravi, an Aljazeera correspondent, reported multiple raids by the Israeli army across the West Bank. These include one in the village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah, where Tamimi was arrested.
An Israeli army spokesperson said that the 22-year-old activist was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence and terrorist activities. They added that Tamimi was allegedly transferred to Israeli security forces for further questioning.
The activist's mother, Nariman Tamimi, said that Israeli forces searched the house and confiscated the mobile phones of the family members. The father, Bassem Tamimi, was also arrested by Israeli personnel during a raid in the town last week and no information about his whereabouts was given, as per Aljazeera.
Israeli media also reported that Tamimi previously called for the murder of settlers in the West Bank in a post on Instagram. An Israeli security source shared the alleged Instagram post with AFP after being questioned about the reason for her arrest.
However, Nariman denied that her daughter wrote the post, saying there were dozens of online pages in her daughter's name that had her photo. She added that her daughter had no connection to these pages.
On the other hand, the Israeli army celebrated Tamimi's arrest, publishing a picture on Facebook and asking: "Where is her smile now?" The activist and her family members are well-known demonstrators and have led Nabi Saleh's non-violent resistance for nearly ten years.
Israel's Raids Across the West Bank
Tamimi first became a face of activists when she was only 14 years old after being filmed biting an Israeli soldier who was pushing her then 12-year-old brother down on a rock. In 2017, she was arrested for slapping and kicking two Israeli soldiers who were in the yard of her family's home. At the time, she was sentenced to eight months in jail for assaulting the troop members, according to CBS News.
In a statement at the time of Tamimi's arrest in 2017, her father said that they were hoping that the next generation would be stronger than them. He wanted them to take the flag from them with more power and more serious resistance to end Israel's occupation.
Israel's far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, shared an image on X, formerly known as Twitter, that showed a soldier restraining Tamimi in a bedroom. He accused the activist of expressing sympathy and support for the Nazi human beings on social media.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Society said that Tamimi was among at least 70 Palestinians who were arrested in Israeli raids across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday. The latest development raises the total reportedly detained to 2,150 in the regions since Oct. 7, when the Hamas militant group invaded Israel, according to BBC.
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