Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested prominent Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi under charges of “inciting terrorisim” during the occupation’s latest raid in the occupied West Bank.
Tamimi first became an icon of Palestinian resistance when a 2012 video of her showed her in confrontation with an Israeli soldier, who had come to “arrest her brother”. Tamimi was only 11 at the time.
Now, 22-year-old Tamimi was taken at dawn after her house was raided, and her family members’ phones confiscated. Her father, Bassem Tamimi, was arrested during a raid last week, and the occupation has refused to provide any information on his whereabouts.
The occupation announced that she “was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence and terrorist activites”, in reference to a post that Tamimi had allegedly shared “calling for the murder of settlers in the West Bank” on Instagram. She was then “transferred to Israeli security forces for further questioning.”
Tamimi’s mother, Nariman, denied that her daughter wrote the post. The Israeli Minister of “National Security” congratulated IOF soldiers on raiding the activist’s home and arresting her.
Tamimi and her family members and well-known and highly regarded activists who have often advocated against the occupation’s targetting and killing of Palestinians in the West Bank.
In particular, they have led their village’s (Nabi Saleh village, located near Ramallah) non-violent resistance for nearly a decade, according to Al Jazeera.
Tamimi’s father, Bassem, was previously held captive in Israeli prisons for at least four years, and has been arrested multiple times. Tamimi herself was arrested in December 2017, after confronting occupation soldiers alongside her mother and cousin Nour.
She was jailed for eight months under charges of “assault, incitement, and past instances of stone-throwing.”
Since the onset of aggressions on Gaza, the occupation forces have been conducting a series of illegal overnight raids on Palestinian homes in the West Bank. Aside from Tamimi’s arrest, multiple cities in the West Bank witnessed raids and open clashes between the army and Palestinian resistance fighters.
Israel has more than doubled the number of detainees in custody since October 7, raising the total number from 5,200 to over 10,000.
Raids and human rights violations on the rise
Footage circulating on social media has shown roads and cars being destroyed in the aftermath. Since October 7, the occupation has arrested around 1,740 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Human rights violations within Israeli prisons have also been on the rise on the wake of October 7. The prisons were already notorious for poor services, torture, and violation of basic human rights.
Since October 7, at least two Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli custody shortly after they were arrested, with at least another dozen injured. Occupation soldiers have been beating, abusing, stepping on and humiliating detainees, including blindfolding them, stripping them, and cuffing their hands. These violations have been heavily documented on video.
Occupation forces have also refused to give detainees medications, including those of them with chronic health conditions. One instance is that of 25-year-old Arafat Hamdan, who was announced dead in the Ofer prison just two days after he was arrested.
Hamdan had endured heavy beating from occupation forces, who refused to give him his medication, and instead tied a bag around his head, and left him in the sun for long hours before he passed.
Other violations within the prisons include cutting off electricity and hot water, conducting cell searches, removing electrical devices such as TVs and radios (in a possible bid to prevent prisoners from keeping up with events in Gaza), removing cooking slabs and kettles, and shutting down the canteen which prisoners use to buy food and basic supplies such as toothpaste. In other instances, reports from detainees emerged that occupation forces have removed shower curtains, violating the privacy of the detained. Many have since refused to shower until curtains are reinstated.