Israeli authorities have extended the detention of Rand Halawani, a forward who plays for the Palestinian women’s national football team, after she was taken into custody in Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Football Association issued a statement condemning the move, describing the arrest as part of a broader pattern of targeting Palestinian athletes.
Calls for release and broader condemnation
The same crackdown also led to the detention of former national team player Natalie Abu Diyeh and three other young women in the occupied West Bank, where they were accused by the Israeli military of promoting terrorist activities.
Bishop Imad Haddad of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land publicly called for Abu Diyeh’s release, while Birzeit University denounced the arrests as an extension of Israel’s systematic policies that undermine Palestinian education and student rights.
According to the Prisoners Club, a Palestinian advocacy group, 89 women are currently held in Israeli prisons, including three minors and three who are pregnant, and more than 9,400 Palestinians remain incarcerated overall.
The coordinated legal actions have drawn attention from human‑rights organisations and raised questions about the intersection of sport, politics and detention in the region.