Israel's military court has extended the detention of Ahed Tamimi, a 17-year-old Palestinian girl who became a national hero after she was filmed slapping Israeli soldiers, for four days for questioning, along with two of her relatives: her mother and another cousin, the AP news agency reports.
The girl was arrested last week, charged with attacking Israeli soldiers. According to Al Jazeera, she confronted them after her 15 year-old cousin Mohammed Tamimi had been shot by a rubber bullet from close range. The teen is reported to still be in intensive care after doctors removed the bullet that had entered his mouth and was lodged in his brain.
The mother of Ahed, Nariman was arrested after she had expressed desire to follow her child into the court.
#AhedTamimi today in military court, Surrounded by an #Israel police battalion, exhausted, but solid. #FreeAhedTamimi #BDS pic.twitter.com/0dQMqOIGOS
— Dr. Basem Naim (@basemn63) 25 декабря 2017 г.
Some Israeli officials have calls Ahed's skirmish humiliating, while Israeli soldiers were behaving professionally, in a restrained manner, which can be seen in the footage.
"When I watched that, I felt humiliated, I felt crushed," Miri Regev, an Israeli Cabinet minister and former military spokeswoman, said, as quoted by the CBS news, calling the incident "damaging to the honor of the military and the state of Israel".
#Watch || The child prisoner Ahed Tamimi in the Israeli military court.#FreeAhedTamimi pic.twitter.com/OgAsBSzl09
— Days of Palestine (@DaysofPalestine) 25 декабря 2017 г.
After the video of Ahed went viral, Palestinians have called her a symbol of the country's resistance against Israel. The teen already made the headlines back in 2015, when she bit a masked Israeli soldier, trying to arrest her 14-year-old brother Mohammed.
The conflict between Israel and Palestine has further escalated after the US December 6 decision to recognize the disputed area of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, despite mass outrage across the Arab world, leading to the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization, announcing the beginning of the third "intifada."
However, the UN General Assembly has rejected Trump's decision after December 21 vote, condemned by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, announcing country's refusal to accept it, claiming that Jerusalem "always was, always will be" the country's capital and noting that many countries supported the Jewish state.
READ MORE: Israel Furious, Palestine Gleeful as UN Approves Resolution on Jerusalem
