By Press TV Staff Writer

In February last year, a video became viral on social media, which netizens at the time described as showing a Ukrainian girl confronting and telling a Russian soldier to go back to your country.

It circulated at a dizzying pace on various social media platforms with people in Western countries heaping lavish praise on the courageous girl for daring to challenge a foreign soldier.

Later, it was revealed that the video was not related to the Ukraine war. It was nearly 10 years old and showed a Palestinian girl Ahed Tamimi bravely confronting Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank.

Tamimi shot to international fame as a teenage girl in 2012 in the occupied West Bank when she slapped an occupying Israeli regime soldier and was locked up.

Last week, Israeli military affairs minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a photo on X, formerly Twitter, of a 22-year-old girl handcuffed by Israeli soldiers, taking her away from her home in the occupied West Bank.

She was arrested allegedly for inciting violence and terrorist activities.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society confirmed her arrest, saying she was arrested in the village of Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank.

It was the same angry girl who in 2012 looked a heavily-armed Israeli soldier in the eye and slapped him without caring about the consequences.

She is now 22 years old but her fighting spirit remains undiluted.

According to her family members, as cited in the media, Tamimi is being held at the high-security Damon Prison in the occupied territories and has been subjected to physical torture.

Her mother reportedly received a call from a lawyer who was visiting another female Palestinian prisoner at the Damon Prison and happened to see Tamimi also behind bars in bad condition.

A journalist who has closely tracked her arrest said her family has had no way to contact her and is largely in the dark about her status two weeks after her arrest.

The journalist further stated that international law prohibits an occupying power (Israel) from transferring prisoners outside the occupied territory (West Bank).

Her mother, Naimane Tamimi, was quoted as saying by Anadolu that the Israeli regime does not need any reasons or legal warrants to arrest anyone, adding that she feels for all Palestinian prisoners.

I grieve more for the people of Gaza than for my daughter, and I’m constantly in tears. We and Gaza are one, she remarked.

Tamimi and her family members have been frequently targeted on Zionist Telegram and Instagram channels with photos and location of their home in the occupied West Bank, calling for violence.

The young Palestinian activist has been an eyesore for the occupying regime and its apologists for long.

In 2015, as a 14-year-old, Tamimi was photographed biting the hand of an Israeli soldier who was trying to take away her younger brother without any charges.

In 2017, Tamimi was arrested after she was seen slapping and kicking an Israeli regime soldier after a group of heavily armed soldiers tried to attack their properties.

I’m not the victim of the occupation. The settler child who carries a rifle at 15, they are the victim of the occupation. I am capable of distinguishing between right and wrong. But his heart is filled with hatred. I am a freedom fighter, I will not be a victim, Tamimi was quoted as saying once.

After her latest arrest, PEN America, in a statement that was widely condemned, said her family should prove her innocence rather than the occupying regime that arrested her without any plausible reason.

In a revised statement, the organization that claims to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide said the guilt is on Israeli authorities and not on Tamimi’s family to show her innocence.

However, prominent authors such as Mirza Waheed had a pertinent question to ask: Why isn’t PEN calling for author Ahed Tamimi’s release from prison?

Social media has been abuzz in recent days calling for Tamimi’s release and an end to the arbitrary and random raids and arrests of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Never stop saying her name so she doesn’t disappear like all of the thousands of prisoners the occupation has. Ahed has been a light in fighting the occupation since she was a little girl, wrote one user.

Her arrest comes amid the Israeli regime’s bombing campaign in the besieged Gaza Strip, which has in the past five weeks claimed the lives of more than 11,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women.

The bombings have targeted densely populated areas in the blockaded strip, decimating hospitals, universities, schools, bakeries, and even places of worship.