'Acts of revenge': Israel arrests Palestinian women footballers and students

'Acts of revenge': Israel arrests Palestinian women footballers and students Submitted by Fayha Shalash on Thu, 06/04/2026 - 14:31 Families say the arrests came without explanation amid a sharp rise in the detention of Palestinian women and girls Rand Halawani, 20, was one of five women arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank this week, including two footballers and three university students (X) Off The pounding on the door came before dawn. When Ahmed Safi awoke to the sound of Israeli soldiers storming his apartment building in Birzeit town, he assumed they were there for someone else. The Palestinian father never imagined the raid would end with the arrest of his 20-year-old daughter, Sama, a psychology student at Birzeit University, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.