Palestinian American woman held without charge by Israeli military

Soldiers arrested university student Sama Safi, 20, along with members of Palestinian women’s national soccer team

A 20-year-old Palestinian American woman has been held in Israeli military detention for nearly two weeks after Israeli soldiers stormed her family home in a pre-dawn raid on 2 June.

Sama Safi, a psychology student at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank, has not been charged with any crimes. A spokesperson for the Israeli military said she and three other women detained around the same time were arrested “after promoting hostile terrorist activity and additional terrorist-related activities”.

Several US legislators have called for Safi’s release and her family has warned that she has a chronic medical condition that requires regular treatment.

One of the other detained Birzeit University students is a member of the Palestinian women’s national soccer team; another player from the team was also detained before being released earlier this week. The four students are being held at an Israeli detention and interrogation center in Jerusalem notorious for its record of abuse.

Safi’s attorney, the Israeli human rights lawyer Lea Tsemel, said that the students appeared to have been targeted after two other students – who were themselves detained at the time – provided the Israeli military with dozens of names of people allegedly involved in an activist student organization called Qutub. Israel says the group is affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which it has designated a terror organization.

Tsemel says her client denies being involved with the student group – but also says the group itself is not illegal. “I don’t know how this information was extorted from them, probably by force,” Tsemel said of the students who allegedly provided the names. “It’s nonsense.” Her next hearing is scheduled for Sunday.

Tsemel visited Safi in detention this week, where she said she found her in relatively good spirits because “she knows she didn’t do anything”. But she noted that the treatment of Palestinians held over allegations that they pose a security threat –including thousands who are held with no charges under so-called “administrative detention” – has grown harsher since 7 October 2023. Journalists and human rights groups have documented widespread abuses of Palestinians in Israeli detention, including sexual abuse and beatings.

Safi grew up in Palestine but frequently visited her extended family in Florida, where her mother grew up. Relatives said she suffers from a chronic autoinflammatory disease that can cause debilitating fevers and pain and she had only recently begun to regain her health after being bedridden for months thanks to daily medication and regular treatment abroad. Her family said that she was receiving some medication in detention, but not enough and not the right kind to properly treat her condition.

Earlier this week, a representative of the US embassy in Jerusalem visited Safi in detention where, he also told the family, she appeared to be “in good spirits”. He reported that she was receiving “sufficient food” though she described it as “prison food”.

A spokesperson for the US state department declined to comment on Safi’s case, citing privacy considerations, but said that “the Trump Administration takes its commitment to assist Americans abroad seriously and we are monitoring the situation”.

“When Americans are detained abroad, the Department advocates for their access to adequate medical care and seeks consular access as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson added. Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs did not respond to a request for comment.

Selma Farsakh Ulm, Safi’s cousin in the US, has mobilized friends in the campus Palestine solidarity movement to advocate for Safi.

Her effort drew swift responses from the senators Peter Welch , Jeff Merkley and Chris Van Hollen , as well as the representative Ayanna Pressley . All of them had also spoken out on behalf of Mohammed Ibrahim , a 15-year-old Palestinian American boy who was detained by the Israeli military over allegations that he had thrown rocks. Ibrahim was freed last November after nine months of detention and a sustained campaign by US lawmakers who advocated for his release.

Farsakh Ulm said that while she hoped the fact that her cousin is a US citizen would help pressure the Israeli government to release her, her case was no different from that of thousands of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

“What Sama is experiencing is also being experienced by many, many other people,” she said. “But calling attention to her case can also educate others about what other people are experiencing who are not American citizens.”