(LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Dr. Imad Haddad, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL), issued urgent public appeals decrying the detention of a young member of his church community by Israeli forces and calling on Christians worldwide to advocate for her immediate release and an end to Israel’s unjust system of military detention in the occupied territories.
On June 2, Israeli forces carried out pre-dawn raids in the occupied West Bank and detained four female Birzeit University students. Among them was Natalie Abudayyeh (also spelled Abu Diya or Abu Dayyeh in some reports), a media and journalism student taken from her apartment in Birzeit alongside three other young women.
BREAKING: ISRAELI forces RAIDED the women’s dormitory at Birzeit University near Ramallah and ABDUCTED FOUR Palestinian FEMALE STUDENTS.
The students were identified as:
• Jolan Abu Awwad
• Natali Abu Dayya
• Laila Nael Khalil
• Sama SafiThe arrests came during an Israeli… pic.twitter.com/9V6TN0Jtg3
— Suppressed News. (@SuppressedNws1) June 2, 2026
According to Bishop Haddad’s statement issued that day, she was “taken at gunpoint by Israeli forces from her student apartment in Birzeit alongside three other women” without her family even being informed of her whereabouts.
“Natalie is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Beit Jala, a graduate of Talitha Kumi Lutheran School, and a Media and Journalism student at Birzeit University,” the senior Evangelical clergyman wrote. Reports also link Abudayyeh to the Palestinian women’s national football team.
“We are deeply shocked and horrified by this news,” he continued, and “incredibly disturbed by the reality that Natalie now joins the thousands of Palestinians in Israeli detention without charge or trial. Palestinian civilians, including women and children, suffer deep injustice in Israeli military detention and are often held for months or years with no explanation.”
Palestinians detained indefinitely for social media posts supporting victims in Gaza
The detentions occurred amid a reported increase in arrests of Palestinian women and girls, including university students and athletes, in the West Bank. The Palestine Football Association condemned the arrests of women footballers and students as unjust and part of a systematic targeting of Palestinian athletes, calling on international bodies for action.
Israeli military authorities claimed the four women were arrested on suspicion of “promoting hostile terrorist activity and additional terrorist-related activities,” though under the de facto Israeli military dictatorship in the West Bank, even the slightest forms of Palestinian resistance to the illegal 59-year Israeli occupation are, ironically, defined as “terrorism.”
According to Al Jazeera, these may include social media posts, participation in protests, the printing and distribution of political material, or even the simple waving of a Palestinian flag, all of which the occupying Israeli army construes as “hostile propaganda” and “incitement” crimes.
Despite questionable evidence, Israeli military courts convict 96% of charges
In a Monday follow-up statement, Haddad reported that Abudayyeh remains detained. She appeared in court the previous day, with proceedings scheduled to continue in 10 days. The other three women detained alongside her also remain in prison.
“We are deeply concerned about their continued detention and that these proceedings are being held in Israeli military court, where administrative detention can be extended without official charge or trial,” he re-emphasized.
The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has noted that such trials of Palestinians in the West Bank are often conducted in military courts where evidence is questionable and conviction rates very high.
“These courts have an approximately 96% conviction rate, based largely on ‘confessions’ extracted under duress and torture during interrogations,” the rights group warns.
Sharp rise in Israel’s detention of Palestinian girls and women, held as ‘hostages’
As reported by Middle East Eye, Abdullah Zaghari, director of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, highlighted a sharp rise in the detention of girls and women, particularly university students and individuals previously imprisoned.
He confirmed that the pretense for many of these arrests are claims of “incitement,” frequently tied to social media posts that voice opposition to the occupation or express support for Palestinians, whether in prison or in Gaza.
The organization confirmed around 9,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, half of them without charge or trial, which for many equates to the common-sense definition of their being “hostages.”
Zaghari also warned that those detained face significant dangers from harsh Israeli prison policies such as severe physical abuse, inadequate medical care, and prolonged isolation.
READ: Brutal torture, rape of Palestinian detainees revealed in new report on Israeli abuse
Ben-Gvir: detaining enemies’ women and youth ‘hurts them the most’
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s Jewish Supremacist National Security Minister who is in charge of the nation’s police, border patrol, and prisons — in which there is enormous evidence of systematic torture — recently proposed a new strategy for dealing with those deemed enemies of Israel.
During a security cabinet meeting last week, he suggested the government “start thinking outside the box” with regard to the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and move to “arresting their women and youth and taking them to terrorist prisons. That’s what hurts them the most.”
Bishop Haddad: We call upon our ‘siblings in Christ’ to ‘advocate for Natalie’s freedom’
With regard to the ongoing crimes in the West Bank, Bishop Haddad called on “our friends, partners, and siblings in Christ around the world to advocate for Natalie’s freedom using whatever channels are available to them, and to demand an end to this unjust and unequal system of detainment and detention that paralyzes and destroys Palestinian communities.”
“This pattern of violence, erasure, and fear is destroying Palestinian life. We once again call on the global church to remember your commitment to work for justice, peace, and fullness of life, and we ask you to continue to advocate for Natalie’s immediate release,” he pleaded, and “continue to hold Natalie and her family in your prayers.”
BREAKING: Palestinian Christian student
Natalie Abudayyeh remains in Israeli detention nearly two weeks after her arrest.Bishop Dr. Imad Haddad says Natalie appeared before a military court and that her case will continue in 10 days, as calls for her release continue. pic.twitter.com/0iPsfkaQxu
— Kegham Balian (@kbalian90) June 15, 2026
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