Tajani Calls for the Release of Five Italian Women Detained by Israel in the West Bank

Italy's foreign minister Antonio Tajani publicly called for the release of five Italian women detained by Israeli police on Thursday in Kiryat Arba, in the West Bank, saying what happened is unacceptable, they were not committing any crime. He said he expected the women to be released within hours.

The five were in the area as part of a wider group of international activists who travel to the West Bank during the olive harvest season to accompany Palestinian farmers in groves that have seen settler violence and access restrictions during past harvests, acting as an international presence meant to discourage confrontation rather than to intervene directly. Other international activists were detained in the same action alongside the Italian women, according to the reporting Tajani's statement was made in response to.

Tajani's language was unambiguous about where responsibility lay. By describing the detention as unacceptable and insisting no crime had been committed, he placed Italy's position on record even as Italian diplomats worked through the practical question of getting the women released, treating the case as a diplomatic matter to be resolved quickly rather than a legal one requiring negotiation over guilt.

Israeli authorities gave Italian diplomats a different timeline than the one Tajani hoped for. Rather than releasing the women outright, officials said they would be transferred to Israel's immigration authority on Friday to begin expulsion and repatriation procedures, a process that removes the women from the country administratively rather than resolving the matter as the simple release Tajani had called for within hours.