A prominent Palestinian activist was arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said on Monday, while the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said over 10,000 people had died since Israel stepped up its bombings last month.
Ahed Tamimi, 22, was arrested overnight in Nabi Saleh, an army spokesman confirmed to the AFP news agency. She was arrested during an Israeli raid that, according to the spokesman, was aimed at detaining “individuals suspected of involvement in terrorist activities and incitement to hatred” in the West Bank.
A security source sent AFP an Instagram post purportedly written by Tamimi when asked why she was arrested. According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the post, written in Hebrew and Arabic, told West Bank settlers: “We are waiting for you.” “We will slaughter you and you will say that what Hitler did to you was a joke.” , it continued. “We will drink your blood and eat your skulls.”
Tamimi’s mother, Nariman al-Tamimi, denied that her daughter wrote the post, telling AFP: “There are dozens of them [online] Pages in the name of Ahed with her photo with which she has no connection.” She also says that her husband was arrested last month and she has no information about his whereabouts.
Tamimi has long been revered by Palestinians as a symbol of their resistance to Israeli occupation. She first rose to prominence in 2015 at the age of 14 when she was filmed biting an Israeli soldier to stop him from arresting her brother. Two years later, she was arrested after she was recorded kicking and slapping an Israeli soldier in an incident outside her home. An Israeli court sentenced her to eight months in prison for the incident. Last year, she published a memoir co-written by an al-Jazeera journalist called “They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl’s Fight for Freedom.”
News of her arrest on Monday was welcomed by far-right Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. He posted a picture X It appears to show Tamimi being held by a soldier, along with a Hebrew caption offering “kudos” to the Israeli forces involved in her capture. Ben-Gvir also accused Tamimi of being a “terrorist” who had expressed “sympathy and support” for the Nazis since the outbreak of war.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Association, Tamimi was one of over 70 people arrested in Israeli raids on Sunday evening in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. A total of 2,150 Palestinians have been arrested by Israel since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war in response to the Hamas attacks on October 7 that killed over 1,400 Israelis, according to local estimates.
On Monday, the Health Ministry in Gaza said the death toll in the territory had reached 10,022 since Israel began its massive bombing campaign to destroy Hamas. The grim outcome is likely to worsen as Israeli forces prepare for an expected push into Gaza City.
The Israeli military said on Sunday it had reached a “significant stage” in the conflict by separating northern Gaza from the south, where civilians were urged to flee for their own safety (although Israeli airstrikes still occurred in the south ). the instruction).
UN agencies released a joint statement over the weekend calling for an immediate ceasefire to bring more humanitarian aid to Gaza. It said that 88 UN staff had already been killed in the month-long war – the highest number ever recorded in a single conflict. Israel has so far rejected suggestions of a pause in the conflict, but claimed on Monday it had “reopened an evacuation route” for civilians from Gaza to move south. “We are not at war with the people of Gaza,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.