Israel extends detention of Palestinian footballer amid wider arrests
Israeli authorities have extended the detention of Rand Halawani, a member of the Palestinian women’s national team, while separate military operations in the West Bank have led to the arrest of former player Natalie Abu Diyeh and three other women.
Israeli authorities have extended the detention of 20-year-old Rand Halawani, a player on the Palestinian women’s national football team, following her arrest in Jerusalem. An Israeli court on Wednesday extended Halawani’s detention until Friday after she was summoned for questioning. The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) condemned the move, describing it as part of a systematic pattern of targeting Palestinian athletes that continues without accountability.
On the same day, Israeli military forces arrested former national team player Natalie Abu Diyeh and three other young Palestinian women in the occupied West Bank. The military stated that the four women were suspected of promoting terrorist activities and additional terrorist-related activities. Abu Diyeh is a student at Birzeit University, which denounced the arrests as part of Israel’s systematic policies targeting Palestinian education and students’ right to continue their academic journey.
Bishop Imad Haddad of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, to which Abu Diyeh belonged, called for her release. In a statement on Tuesday, he expressed shock and horror at the news, noting that her family did not yet know her whereabouts. The PFA stated that Halawani’s arrest and that of a former national team player were not an isolated incident.
According to the Prisoners Club, the main association for prisoners’ rights in the Palestinian territories, 89 Palestinian women are currently held in Israeli jails, including three minors and three pregnant women. The organisation announced in late May that more than 9,400 Palestinians were in Israeli jails, including Palestinian citizens of Israel.
The specific details of the allegations against the four women remain limited to the military’s statement regarding terrorist-related activities. The exact charges or legal basis for Halawani’s initial summons and subsequent detention extension are not detailed in the source material.
