Palestinian woman detained after claiming settlers set fire to her home – Haaretz

In the quiet hours of a night that should have been like any other in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian woman’s life was split into before and after. Her name is whispered now among neighbors and activists, though she would rather remain anonymous, fearing further reprisal. She lived in a modest stone house on the outskirts of a village near Hebron, a place where olive trees have stood for generations and where the air is thick with dust and memory. That night, she woke to the crackle of flames and the sharp smell of smoke. Rubbing her eyes, she stumbled to the window and saw the orange glow eating through the wooden beams of her family’s home, the same beams her father had installed decades ago. Outside, she would later tell investigators, she saw figures—men with covered faces—running into the darkness, their silhouettes briefly lit by the fire they had set. In her panic, she grabbed her children, neighbors came running with buckets and blankets, and together they managed to douse the worst of the blaze before the entire structure collapsed. But her ordeal was only beginning. When dawn broke and the smoke cleared, she did what any person would do after such an attack: she reported the crime. She called the Israeli authorities, described what she had seen, and pointed a trembling finger toward the nearby settlement, where she recognized the men’s accents and clothing. Instead of sympathy, she received a summons. Instead of protection, she was handcuffed. Within hours, this Palestinian woman—a mother, a farmer, a person whose only crime was trying to save her roof—found herself in the back of a military jeep, accused of staging a hoax and setting her own home ablaze. Her neighbors watched in disbelief as she was driven away, her children crying at the