Ahed Tamimi, the Palestinian teenager whose detention after she slapped an Israeli soldier caused an international outcry, was released today to a heroine’s welcome in her home village.

The 17-year old, who was arrested after the incident outside Nabi Saleh on the West Bank last December when she was still 16, told the crowd greeting her on her return: “The resistance will continue until the end of the occupation.”

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, described her as a “role model and as an example of the popular Palestinian struggle for liberty and independence.”

Detained since her arrest, she received an eight-month sentence and a fine of just over £1,000 after pleading guilty to four counts of incitement and assault in March. Her mother was also released from prison today.

She told the court that she had acted after seeing her 15-year-old cousin hit by a rubber bullet fired by an Israeli soldier.