Bethlehem - Ma'an - An Israeli human rights organization on Thursday filed a petition protesting the swift and forcible deportation of Bethlehem student Berlanty Azzam the day before.

According to a Bethlehem University spokesperson, an Israeli court has ordered state attorneys to submit a preliminary written reply to the petition from Gisha, the Israeli rights group, by Tuesday, 3 November.

Berlanty, a 21-year-old Palestinian from Gaza, was granted permission to travel to the West Bank with the help of the Vatican-affiliated Catholic university.

But Israel's military released a statement to the US news network CNN saying Azzam was "residing illegally" in the West Bank and had overstayed a permit "allowing her to stay in Jerusalem for a few days in August 2005."

She began business administration studies in 2005 and was three credits shy of graduating when Israeli forces pulled her out of a minibus at an internal military checkpoint.

The young woman was held at the checkpoint until evening, before she was blindfolded and transported to Gaza overnight. Once she arrived at the Erez crossing, her blindfold was removed and she was told to enter the coastal strip for the first time in four years.

As her lawyers were instructed to meet her at a West Bank detention center the following morning, neither her parents nor herself were notified before Israeli forces tossed her back into Gaza, where she waited until Hamas security forces and her surprised parents arrived on the other side.