On May 28, Palestinian officials said Israeli authorities extended the detention of Rand Halawani, a 20-year-old female player of the Palestinian national football team, after she was summoned for interrogation in Jerusalem on the evening of May 27. The Palestine Football Association (PFA) condemned the move, calling the arrest of Halawani along with a former national team player part of a "systematic campaign targeting Palestinian athletes, which continues with impunity."
According to information from the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem, an Israeli court on May 28 ordered Halawani to be held until May 30. On the same day, May 27, the Israeli military also arrested former national team player Natalie Abu Diyeh, a student at Birzeit University, along with three other young Palestinian women in the West Bank. The Israeli military said the four women were suspected of "inciting terrorist activities and activities related to terrorism."
Birzeit University condemned the arrests, saying they were part of a "systematic Israeli policy targeting Palestinian education and the right of students to continue their education." Bishop Imad Haddad of the Lutheran Evangelical Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, of which Natalie Abu Diyeh is a member, called for her release. "We are deeply shocked and horrified by this news, as well as the fact that her family still does not know where she has been taken," Bishop Haddad said in a statement.
According to the Prisoners' Club, the main advocacy group for prisoner rights in the Palestinian territories, 89 Palestinian women are currently held in Israeli prisons, including three minors and three pregnant women. The Prisoners' Club, which operates under the Palestinian Authority, announced in late May 2024 that more than 9,400 Palestinians, including Palestinian citizens of Israel, are being held in Israeli prisons.
