Imane Maarifi, a French nurse, became known for her testimony on the massacre of the civilian population of Gaza, where she went last winter. This Thursday, September 5, she was arrested and placed in police custody in Paris.
It was left-wing MP Thomas Portes who raised the alarm this Thursday.Imane Maarifi, a French nurse who spent two weeks in Gaza at the European hospital in Khan Younès, has just been arrested by the police at her home. She is now in GAV (police custody).” wrote the MP on his X account, without giving the reasons for his arrest.
At midday, the nurse was still being held at the police station in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.
On her return from Gaza, where she went as part of a mission by the NGO Palmed, Imane Maarifi testified before the National Assembly (lower house) in February.
“We had received her at the National Assembly to listen to her testimony. She had described a terrifying humanitarian situation“, recalls Thomas Portes.
France: Calls to release nurse Imane Maarifi, witness to the horrors in Gaza
While calling for his immediate release, the MP accused the authorities of continuing to “suppressing voices of peace to cover up the genocide committed by the Israeli government“.
“In France, a French nurse who witnessed the Israeli genocide was arrested“, headlined the online newspaper Mediapart.
“A resigning French government could be at the service of genocide if it is Israel that commits it“, commented the site founded by Edwy Plenel.
For Farida Amrani, MP for La France Insoumise (LFI), “Those who denounce the genocide of Palestinians are repressed again“.
“We have all seen children with their skulls split open…”
“Full support for this woman of admirable courage and overwhelming humanity. She must be freed and voices against genocide must stop being criminalized.“, posted Mathilde Panot, from the same party.
Imane Maarifi stayed in the Palestinian enclave from January 22 to February 5. Upon her return to France, she gave numerous testimonies, before Parliament and in the media, about the horrors she saw while serving as a volunteer at the European hospital in Khan Younès.
“My body came back because I had to resume my family life, my professional life, but I live Gaza, I eat Gaza, I sleep Gaza, I can’t fall asleep without thinking of them. (…) We have all seen children with their skulls split open, their brains sticking out, their legs torn off“, she testified in particular.
