The Israeli military announced on Monday that it had apprehended Ahed Tamimi, a prominent 22-year-old Palestinian activist, during a raid in the occupied West Bank.
Tamimi’s arrest, according to an army spokesperson, is based on suspicions of incitement to violence and involvement in terrorist activities within the vicinity of Nabi Salih, a town near Ramallah in the West Bank. Subsequently, Tamimi was handed over to Israeli security authorities for further interrogation.
The arrest unfolded within the context of an Israeli military operation intended to detain individuals suspected of engaging in terrorist activities and propagating incitement to hatred, specifically concentrated in the northern region of the West Bank, the spokesperson explained.
When asked for the rationale behind her detention, a security source provided an Instagram post that has circulated widely on social media, which is attributed to the young activist. The post, composed in both Arabic and Hebrew, contained explicit and violent language, even referencing Hitler, as it called for the harm of Israelis.
In response, the activist’s mother, Nariman al-Tamimi, vehemently denied her daughter’s authorship of the controversial post, claiming that numerous online pages exist under Ahed’s name, bearing her photograph, although they are unrelated to her.
Furthermore, Nariman al-Tamimi disclosed that her husband, Bassem al-Tamimi, had been taken into custody on October 20, and his whereabouts have remained undisclosed since.
Nevertheless, the authenticity of the Instagram account in question, which was subsequently blocked on Monday morning, remains subject to verification by AFP.
Ahed Tamimi first gained prominence at the tender age of 14 when she was filmed physically confronting an Israeli soldier in an attempt to prevent the arrest of her brother, who was incapacitated with a cast on his arm.
Her fearless stance transformed her into an emblematic figure of the Palestinian cause, and a prominent mural of her likeness now adorns the Israeli separation barrier adjacent to the West Bank in Bethlehem, near Jerusalem.
In 2017, Tamimi faced arrest and an eight-month detention for slapping two Israeli soldiers within the confines of her family residence in the West Bank while urging them to vacate the premises.
Since the commencement of the Israeli military’s operation in Gaza on October 7, Israeli security forces have conducted a series of widespread arrests of Palestinians, targeting those allegedly associated with Hamas or involved in fomenting violence.
This escalated period of tension and violence has resulted in the loss of over 150 Palestinian lives in the West Bank, with the majority of casualties attributed to actions by Israeli soldiers or settlers, as reported by the Palestinian health ministry.
By AFP