Four other women, including a former Palestinian player, were also arrested on Tuesday following Rand Halawani’s detention.
Published June 3, 2026
Israeli authorities have extended the detention of a player from the Palestinian women’s national soccer team after she was summoned for questioning in Jerusalem, according to a report from the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) condemned the prolonged detention of 20-year-old Rand Halawani, who was arrested on Tuesday night.
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The group said in a statement that the arrests of Halawani and former national team players “are not isolated incidents but are part of a well-documented pattern of systematic targeting of Palestinian athletes that continues without accountability.”
An Israeli court on Wednesday extended Mr. Halawani’s detention until Friday, according to the Palestinian Governor’s Office in Jerusalem.
Israeli forces on Tuesday also arrested former national soccer player Nathalie Abu Dieh, a student at Birzeit University, and three other young Palestinian women in the occupied West Bank.
The military said in a statement that the four women are suspected of “facilitating terrorist activities and additional terrorist-related activities.”
Birzeit University accused the arrests of being part of Israel’s “systematic policy targeting Palestinian education and the right of students to pursue their academic journey.”
Bishop Imad Haddad of Jordan’s Holy Land Evangelical Lutheran Church, to which Natalie Abu Dieh belonged, called for her release.
“We are deeply shocked and horrified by this news and that her family still does not know where she was taken,” Haddad said in a statement Tuesday.
There are currently 89 Palestinian women in Israeli prisons, including three minors and three pregnant women, according to the Prisoners’ Club, the main organization defending prisoners’ rights in the Palestinian territories.
In late May, the POW Club, an affiliate of the Palestinian Authority, announced that more than 9,400 Palestinians, including Palestinian nationals, are in Israeli prisons.
