The Israeli authorities announced on Tuesday January 17 that they had expelled an Italian woman arrested the day before during a military operation in the occupied West Bank and suspected of belonging to an organization “terrorist“.
“Stefania Costantini, who entered Israel on May 2, 2022 with a tourist visa, is suspected of belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)”, an organization deemed “terroristby Israel and the European Union, the Shin Beth, the Israeli internal security service, told AFP.
Return to Italy
She had failed to show up for a Shin Bet summons in September 2022 and “continued its activities” for the PFLP, before being arrested on Monday January 16 “to be interrogated“, Continued this source. Stefania Costantini (50) was then “transferred to the immigration services who decided to deport him“, according to the Shin Bet. She was deported on Monday afternoon to Italy, a spokeswoman for the Israeli immigration services confirmed to AFP.
Contacted by AFP, the Italian consulate general in Jerusalem did not wish to react immediately. Stefania Costantini was arrested during an Israeli army operation in the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem, during which a 14-year-old Palestinian boy was killed on Monday by Israeli gunfire.
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Israeli and Italian foreign ministers Eli Cohen and Antonio Tajani said on Twitter that they had a telephone conversation on Monday, without specifying whether they had discussed the case of Stefania Costantini.
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