Palestinian journalist Mohammed Awad, 38, was recently arrested by Israel’s occupation forces at his home in Beitunia, west of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. His wife, Eman Awad, told the Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) raided the family’s home around 6am. This was after they blew open the door of the family’s old apartment, but found no one inside so left.
Mohammed Awad is one of 40 Palestinian journalists currently detained by the Israeli occupation
Eman Awad said her husband – a freelance journalist who worked for AFP and Al Jazeera, and was a DropSite News contributor- was then arrested. ‘Israeli’ soldiers “blindfolded him, handcuffed him and took him” to a military vehicle. After around 15 minutes, the IOF left the house without searching it or confiscating any of its contents.
Following Awad’s arrest, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said 40 Palestinian journalists were being detained by the occupation. Five of these being women.
But in the early hours of 19 August, photojournalist Abdul Rahman Hassan became the 41st journalist to be detained by the Israeli occupation. Amid a widespread campaign of raids across the Bethlehem Governorate, Hassan’s home in central Bethlehem was stormed by the IOF and searched. He was blindfolded, and has been abducted to an as yet unknown location
Since the beginning of ‘Israel’s’ genocide in Gaza, a total of 250 journalists have been arrested and detained, in what the PPS describes as a campaign of:
systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists.
Almost half of these Palestinian journalists are being held under administrative detention. This means they are imprisoned without charge or trial, based on ‘secret evidence’ the detainee and their lawyer are not permitted to see. But if they are charged with a crime, journalists are often accused of “incitement, ” in an attempt by the occupation to silence their social media activity and news stories of the occupation’s crimes.
Once detained, ‘Israel’ then exposes them to a multitude of human rights abuses, including the routine use of torture, medical negligence, starvation, sexual violence, and enforced disappearance.
‘Israel’ routinely interrogates Palestinian journalists
Palestinian journalists are routinely interrogated by Israeli occupation authorities, especially since October 2023. A February 2026 investigation by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) was based on interviews with 58 Palestinian journalists released from ‘Israeli’ detention.
Mohammed Badr told CPJ that interrogators questioned him for hours about his journalism. They then gave him a choice between becoming an informant or remaining imprisoned longer. Other journalists reported being threatened with prolonged detention, violence against themselves or family members, or other consequences. The testimonies collected by CPJ also include torture- beatings, stress positions, sleep deprivation, forced nudity and sexual abuse.
Freelance journalist Ossayd Amarneh was arrested in December 2024. He told CPJ that he was questioned about his journalism and Facebook posts. This included his reporting on ‘Israeli’ settlers storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and his support for Palestinians in Gaza. He was later arrested again in August 2025 and remains in administrative detention; CPJ reports that he was interrogated again in June 2026.
Radwan Qatanani was detained for 15 months. After his release he told CPJ that he had been beaten and subjected to stress-position torture and had lost around 30 kg.
Psychological trauma from time in Israel’s detention often prevents journalists returning to work once released
In May 2026, RSF also reported it had interviewed five Palestinian journalists from Gaza who had been imprisoned by ‘Israel’ after 7 October. They included journalists Alaa al-Sarraj, Diaa al-Kahlout, Shady Abu Sedo and Emad al-Ifranji. Their accounts describe harsh treatment by the IOF, Shin Bet personnel and prison authorities.
These five journalists also describe severe physical and psychological abuse at the hands of the occupation. And because the psychological effects of ‘Israel’s’ crimes still haunt them, none have felt able to work as journalists since being released.
Detainees are exposed to degrading treatment, starvation, humiliation and physical and mental torture. So it is not surprising that thousands of released prisoners emerge looking totally different to when they were first detained.
Mohamad Arab, a freelance journalist with Al Araby TV, has been detained for more than two years without trial. He was arrested in March 2024, when the IOF attacked Gaza City’s Al Shifa Medical Complex for the second time. During a recent hearing in the “Israeli’ Supreme Court, Arab appeared via video link. Arab had not been in public view for over two years, and the change in him was shocking.
Huge physical and mental changes due to immense suffering while in detention.
The photos below are of journalist Mujahid Bani Mifleh, who continues to face a long journey of treatment and recovery. He spent 14 months in Israeli occupation prisons, without charge or trial. Mifleh experienced severe health complications due to his time in ‘Israeli’ prisons. Just days after his release, he suffered serious brain hemorrhage and underwent multiple surgeries.
Many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been forcibly disappeared, and their fate is still unknown. This includes two young photojournalists, Nidal al-Wahidi and Haitham Abdel Wahed, who disappeared on 7 October 2023. Although Israeli occupation authorities insist the two are not in their custody, this should not be believed.
Ihab Mohammed Abdelqader Diab, 36, was a father of two children, and a photographer for Gaza-based Ain MediaIn. In December 2023, he was abducted from his home. His family received no information about his whereabouts or fate. And, until 9 August 2026, the occupation continued to deny he had ever been detained.
They then announced he was martyred while in custody almost two years previously, in September 2024. The circumstances and cause of his death have not been independently established, so there are now calls for an investigation. According to his family, Diab was healthy and had no health issues at the time he was detained.
Another journalist to die whilst in prison was Marwan Fathi Hussein Herzallah, 54. He was an employee of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation in Nablus, and died in March after two months in Megiddo prison. In 1995, Herzallah had a leg amputated after he was shot by the IOF. His son is currently being detained by ‘Israel’, without charge or trial.
Humanitarian system plagued by paralysis since genocide in Gaza
‘Israel’ has killed more than 260 journalists in Gaza, since the start of its genocide in the Strip. Two have also died while in ‘Israeli’ custody – Ihab Diab was a photographer for Gaza-based Ain Media, while West Bank based Marwan Harzallah was a technician with Palestinian Authority-affiliated Palestine TV.
According to the Palestinian Centre for Prisoners’ Advocacy, the IOF use enforced disappearance as:
a tool of collective punishment and revenge, keeping families rapped in anxiety and psychological suffering.
The PPS has reiterated its demand for the international human rights system to
end the systematic paralysis that has plagued the humanitarian system since the beginning of the genocide.
And it is calling for the guaranteed protection of journalists, as well as their right to perform their essential work. PPS says the targeting of Palestinian journalists with killings, arrests, torture, and enforced disappearance is
part of a systematic policy” aimed at obscuring the truth, preventing the dissemination of information about what is happening inside the occupation’s prisons and in the Palestinian territories, and suppressing the Palestinian narrative.
The prisoner’s advocacy organisation is not only calling on the international human rights system to work to guarantee the protection of journalists and their right to perform their essential work. It is also demanding an end to the
systematic paralysis that has plagued the humanitarian system since the start of the genocide in Gaza.
Since October 2023, ‘Israel’ has carried out more than 25,600 arrests in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. There are currently more than 9400 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons. This figure includes 370 children and 92 women. Almost 3200 are held without charge or trial, in addition to around 1360 detainees from Gaza, who are classified by ‘Israel’ as “unlawful combatants” and also held without charge or trial.
Featured image and additional images supplied
By Charlie Jaay
