Palestinian Teenager Jailed For Slapping Israeli Soldiers Released

Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi after being released from prison (Image: PA).

A Palestinian teenager who was jailed for slapping Israeli soldiers has been released to a hero's welcome.

Ahed Tamimi,17, and her mother Nariman Tamimi, were greeted with banners, cheers and Palestinian flags as they returned to their home village of Nabi Saleh in the West Bank.

Ahed was arrested in December after she slapped two Israeli soldiers outside her family home.

Her mother filmed the incident and uploaded it to Facebook where it went viral and Ahed became a symbol of resistance to Israel's rule over the Palestinians. 

She became a local hero and an internationally recognisable figure. 

Ahed's supporters saw the incident as a brave girl who struck two armed Israeli soldiers in frustration after realising they had seriously wounded a 15-year-old cousin, shooting him in the head from close range with a rubber bullet during nearby stone-throwing clashes.

In Israel, however, she is seen by many as a provocateur, an irritation or a threat to the military's deterrence policy.

Israel treated her actions as a criminal offence, indicting her on charges of assault and incitement. Her eight-month sentence was the result of a plea deal.

In Nabi Saleh, supporters welcomed Ahed home with Palestinian flags planted on the roof of her home. Hundreds of chairs were set up for wellwishers in the courtyard.

On her return home, Ahed said: "The resistance continues until the occupation is removed.

"All the female prisoners are steadfast. I salute everyone who supported me and my case."

Since 2009, residents of Nabi Saleh have staged regular anti-occupation protests that often ended with stone-throwing clashes.

Ahed has participated in such marches from a young age, and has had several highly publicised run-ins with soldiers. One photo shows the then 12-year-old raising a clenched fist towards a soldier towering over her.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war.

Palestinians are increasingly disillusioned about efforts to establish a state in those territories after more than two decades of failed negotiations with Israel.