The Israeli troops arrived at about 4am last Saturday to take 23-year-old Layan Nasir away at gunpoint from her parents’ home in the West Bank town of Birzeit. There was no arrest warrant or charges, and her parents haven’t been notified of where she is held.
The only Palestinian Christian woman currently in Israeli detention, her case has been raised by the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. “I’m shocked and deeply concerned,” he said in a post on X. “Please pray for Layan’s safety and swift release.”
The family’s ordeal began when Layan’s mother, Lulu Aranki Nasir, was woken early in the morning by loud hammering on her door.
“The minute I opened the door, 15 soldiers put their guns in my face and entered the house in a hurry,” she said, in an interview in the family’s living room, dominated by a lifesize poster of Layan on her graduation day.
Aranki Nasir started to ask what the men wanted, and one said “Shhh or I’ll shoot you”, then pointed a loaded gun at her head. When Layan’s father, Sami Nasir, came out of the bedroom, he too was held at gunpoint. A soldier told him: “We are at war, we can do anything.”
After they searched the house, a captain appeared, who gave his name as Meron and told the family he had come for Layan.
She was taken away, blindfolded and handcuffed, about 20 minutes after the soldiers arrived. Aranki Nasir was barred from saying goodbye to her only daughter. “We weren’t allowed to even look at her,” she said, her eyes filling with tears at the memory.
Layan was allowed to speak to her lawyer for 1 minute on the phone the next day. She told him she was in Ofer jail but expected to be moved soon, and Israeli officials were preparing the papers to hold her in administrative detention.
This allows for pre-emptive arrest, on secret evidence, and six-month stints in prison without charge or trial that can be extended indefinitely.
“Can you imagine how fragile our lives under occupation are, that the Israelis can come at any time, to any house, not give any reason, take that person to an unknown place, and keep that person for months in jail without being guilty of anything?” said Xavier Abu Eid, political scientist, former adviser to the PLO and a parishioner at Layan’s church.
“These things are taking place on a daily basis. This is one case that is highlighted for particular reasons, but thousands are in jail.”
Layan’s lawyers say she is now in Damon prison, the main jail for Palestinian women held in Israel. There was no notification, but guessing she might be there, they applied for a visit and prison authorities confirmed they were holding her, though they haven’t authorised a trip.
Israel’s military said Layan Nasir was arrested “in light of intelligence information which indicated that she poses a threat to the security of the area”.
A statement claimed she resisted arrest, and “confronted the forces”. The only confrontation described by her parents was asking male soldiers to leave her room while she dressed.
Layan’s detention has been extended until 14 April “for the purpose of considering the issuance of an administrative order by the commander of the Central Command,” the statement added. There was no response to questions about where she was being held.
There has been a surge in detentions of Palestinians since 7 October, when Hamas launched a cross-border attack into Israel, which responded by launching a war on Gaza.
Prisoners’ rights organisation Addameer said that about 1,320 people were being held in administrative detention before then; by March this year, that had “surged to approximately 3,558, including about 40 children, and more than 19 women.”
Conditions have also deteriorated sharply. The far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, even before the war said he wanted harsher conditions for Palestinian prisoners.
That has become a reality, exacerbated by overcrowding. The UN and media, including Israeli newspaper Haaretz, have documented widespread allegations of abuse in Israeli jails, including torture, since 7 October.
“We are worried [about Layan] because the situation is really horrible inside the prisons,” said Tala Nasir, Layan’s cousin and a lawyer with Palestinian prisoners rights organisation Addameer.
It was not the first time soldiers had arrived at the house in the middle of the night looking for Layan, even though she has never been accused or convicted of any violent crime.
In 2021, she was detained on charges of belonging to a leftwing student union at her university, the Progressive Democratic Student Pole, which has been criminalised by Israel.
“(Israel claims) that student unions are affiliated with organisations outside the campus, but that doesn’t mean it is true,” Tala said. “They were doing activities like selling books and pencils to students, and going out for walks with this organisation.”
Friends arrested with Layan at the time, including 10 other women, were sentenced to 14 months in jail, but she was released on 24,000 shekels (£5,000) bail after two months, and has spent the years afterwards in a kind of legal limbo.
She was neither convicted or exonerated, but was called regularly to court hearings where any decision was deferred repeatedly. Her next summons was for 17 April, 10 days after her she was taken away in the night.
At the start of Israel’s war in Gaza, Layan’s family worried about her. Israel regularly targets previous detainees for re-arrest, said Tala Nasir. “Even if they don’t have evidence, they can use the easiest tool, which is administrative detention.”
But they did not expect the brutal night-time raid. Israeli authorities knew her address from her bail conditions, and if they considered her a threat, could have come to her home in the daytime, or simply arrested her in court. “We slept the night not knowing where she was,” Lulu Aranki Nasir said.
The family have turned to their church leaders to try to pressure Israeli authorities about Layan’s case. But they admit their best hope of getting her home may be a deal to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza for Palestinians in Israeli jails.
Three-quarters of the Palestinian prisoners freed in a first ceasefire and hostage release deal last year had not been convicted of any crime, the New York Times found.
“We hope they will free Layan if they stop the war in Gaza,” her father said. “If there is a deal with the hostages, always the girls are the first to be freed.”
