A well-known Palestinian activist has been arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s military announced Monday, as the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said over 10,000 people had died since Israel escalated its bombings last month.
Ahed Tamimi, 22, was detained overnight in Nabi Saleh, an army spokesperson confirmed to the AFP news agency. She was arrested during an Israeli raid which the spokesman said aimed to apprehend “individuals suspected of being involved in terrorist activities and incitement to hatred” in the West Bank.
A security source sent the AFP an Instagram post allegedly made by Tamimi when asked why she had been detained. According to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, the post written in Hebrew and Arabic told settlers in the West Bank “we’re waiting for you.” “We’ll slaughter you, and you’ll say that what Hitler did to you was a joke,” it allegedly continued. “We’ll drink your blood and eat your skulls.”
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Tamimi’s mother, Nariman al-Tamimi, denied that her daughter had written the post, telling the AFP: “There are dozens of [online] pages in Ahed’s name with her photo, with which she has no connection.” She also says her husband had been arrested last month and she did not have any information concerning his whereabouts.
Tamimi has long been venerated by Palestinians as a symbol of their resistance against Israeli occupation. She first rose to prominence at the age of 14 in 2015 when she was filmed biting an Israeli soldier to stop him from arresting her brother. Two years later, she was detained after she was recorded kicking and slapping an Israeli soldier during an incident outside her home—with an Israeli court sentencing her to eight months in prison over 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 Monday was welcomed by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. He posted an image on X appearing to show Tamimi being restrained 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” with Nazis since the outbreak of the war.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, Tamimi was one of over 70 people arrested during Israeli raids Sunday night in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. A total of 2,150 Palestinians have been detained by Israel since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war in response to the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 which killed over 1,400 Israelis, according to local estimates.
On Monday, the health ministry in Gaza said the death toll in the territory had hit 10,022 since Israel began its massive bombing campaign intended to destroy Hamas. The dark tally is only likely to increase as Israeli forces prepare for an anticipated push into Gaza City.
The Israeli military said Sunday that it had reached a “significant stage” in the conflict by severing the north of the Gaza Strip from the south, where civilians were told to flee for their own safety (though Israeli airstrikes have taken place in the south despite the instruction).
U.N. agencies released a joint statement over the weekend calling for an immediate ceasefire to allow more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, saying that 88 U.N. staffers have already been killed in the month-old war—the highest number ever recorded in a single conflict. Israel has so far rebuffed suggestions for any kind of pause in the conflict, but on Monday claimed to have “reopened an evacuation route for Gazan civilians” to move south. “We are not at war with the people of Gaza,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
