An Israeli court on Monday extended the detention of the 16-year-old Palestinian girl Ahed Tamimi who was filmed slapping an Israeli soldier for another 48 hours pending intensive investigation.
Israel’s Ofer military court west of Ramallah extended Tamimi’s remand to January 17.
A number of consuls diplomats and NGOs representatives along with Tamimi’s family members were in attendance at the court hearing.
Al-Tamimi was dragged by the Israeli forces to the court while chained hand and feet.
“Stay strong” her father told her to which she responded: “Don’t worry dad.”
According to the Israeli prosecution Ahed Tamimi was alleged to have thrown rocks at soldiers assaulted them spit at them and obstructed soldiers from carrying out an arrest.
Footage from the December 15 encounter in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh shows Ahed and her cousin Nour approaching two Israeli soldiers before shoving kicking and slapping them.
Ahed the primary suspect of the case has been accused of “assaulting a soldier harming the security of the area incitement and other felonies” according to court documents.
In her version of the incident shared in front of the court during a hearing last month Ahed said that the same soldiers featured in the video had shot her cousin in the head with a rubber bullet an hour prior to the filmed encounter. “Then I saw the same soldiers who hit my cousin this time in front of my house. I could not keep quiet and I responded as I did” the 16-year-old testified.
