Israeli forces detained four female Birzeit University students during overnight raids near Ramallah [Getty]
Israeli forces have detained four female Birzeit University students following a series of overnight raids across the Ramallah area as part of a growing pattern of targeting students and academic institutions in the occupied West Bank.
The detainees were identified as Jolan Abu Awwad, who was seized after Israeli soldiers stormed student housing in Birzeit, north of Ramallah; Sama Safi, taken from her family home in Ramallah; Leila Na’el Khalil, forcibly taken from her home in Beitunia, west of the city; and Natalie Abu Diah, who was seized from her family residence in Birzeit.
The arrest of Abu Diah, a media and journalism student and member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Beit Jala, has drawn particular condemnation from church leaders.
Palestinian Rev. Munther Isaac told The New Arab that the targeting of university students forms part of a longstanding pattern by Israeli authorities.
“Birzeit University has repeatedly been subjected to raids, arrests, and other measures that undermine the right to education,” he said. “It is also common for families and institutions to receive little information regarding the charges.”
“These arrests must be understood within a broader reality of escalating military and settler aggression across the West Bank,” Isaac added. “We are witnessing unprecedented levels of intimidation, fear, and pressure on Palestinian communities.”
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Bishop Imad Haddad said the community was “deeply shocked and horrified” by her detention, adding that her family had not been informed of her whereabouts.
He called for her immediate release and urged action against “an unjust and unequal system of detainment and detention that paralyses and destroys Palestinian communities”.
According to Palestinian rights groups, the four students join thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli detention, many without formal charges or trial under administrative detention procedures.
The arrests follow a major Israeli military incursion into Birzeit University on 6 January, when troops entered the campus during daylight hours, firing tear gas, live ammunition and stun grenades while pursuing students and staff.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that three people were hospitalised with gunshot wounds to the legs, while three others were injured by shrapnel. More than 40 individuals were treated for tear gas inhalation.
On the same night as the student arrests, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that at least 31 Palestinians were detained across the occupied West Bank in a series of raids, including several former prisoners.
“Many Palestinians increasingly feel that these policies are designed to make life unbearable and to push people toward leaving their homeland under the guise of so-called ‘voluntary migration’,” Isaac told The New Arab.
