On Tuesday, during an invasion of the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, Israeli forces abducted an Italian woman, a Palestine solidarity activist, beating and kicking her before taking her into custody and then deporting her to Italy.
She was identified as 50-year old Stefania Costantini.
During the same raid in which she was arrested, Israeli forces also shot and killed a 14-year old child.
She was taken by the Israeli intelligence agency, Shin Bet.
According to a representative from Shin Bet, Costantini arrived on a tourist visa in May, and was suspected of involvement with the leftist political party Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is labeled by the US and Israel as a terrorist group.
The Shin Bet spokesperson said, “Costantini was summoned in September 2022 for interrogation by the Shin Bet, but she did not report [to the authorities] and even continued her activities for the terrorist organisation”.
She was deported on the same day she was taken into custody.
According to Constantini, Israeli soldiers beat her and kicked her while she was on the ground. She told reporters with the AFP news agency, “They were shouting that I was a terrorist. When I was in the jeep, they kept kicking my legs with their boots”.
The 76-year old Palestinian refugee Umm Nidal Abu Aker hosted Costantini over the past five months. She told reporters, “She didn’t want to go with them but they hit her and carried her on the shoulders of one soldier”.
Abu Aker said that Costantini “loved to show her solidarity with Palestinian people”.
Despite the fact that her deportation took place on the same day as a phone call between Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen, neither mentioned the deportation.
In the first 16 days of 2023, Israeli forces have killed 15 Palestinians, including 4 children.
