Young Christian woman freed after eight months in Israeli prison

Image: Facebook

Source: Episcopal News, Social Media

Layan Nasser, a 25-year-old Palestinian Christian woman and has recently returned home to the occupied West Bank after her third spell in an Israeli prison.

Layan, a member of St Peter's Anglican Church in Birzeit, in the West Bank was released from Damon Prison at Daliyat al-Karmel, on May 16, 2026, after being detained for eight months without charge.

Her detention was part of Israel's administrative detention policies, which allow imprisonment without trial for extended periods. Layan is a graduate in nutrition from Birzeit University.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Justin Welby, and the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, Most Rev Hosam E Naoum were among many church leaders who led appeals for Layan's release - on this occasion and during her two previous incarcerations.

The Rev Donald Binder, an Episcopal priest serving as canon pastor to the English-speaking congregation at St George's Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem said in a FB post: "We rejoice with the Nasir family and Layan herself, giving thanks that this chapter of their years-long nightmare is over, while praying that they and other families like them can now be finally left to lead their lives in peace."

In 2024 Layan was held for eight months in administrative detention by the Israel government without charge. Soldiers had arrived at her home in Birzeit and threatened her family as they searched the house before taking her away.

In September 2025, Nasir was found guilty again on unclear grounds in a court case that Anglican leaders said "lacks any legal or moral justification."

In an interview with the Church Times, the Dean of St George's College, the Very Rev Richard Sewell said: "Typical of Layan's personality, her primary concern was not for herself but for the prisoners remaining, with whom she had shared a cramped cell, and others held in Damon Prison near Haifa."

Sewell said he was with Layan's family when she arrived home. She told him Damon Prison was a "a cemetery for the living."

As of 15 May 2026, 9,400 Palestinians are reportedly in Israeli detention, according to Addameer, a Palestinian nongovernmental organization based in Ramallah in the West Bank.