Israel has arrested 80 Palestinian journalists since October, says rights group

An independent human rights organisation based in Ramallah has said that the Israeli occupation army has arrested 80 Palestinian journalists since the start of its aggression against the Gaza Strip on 7 October last year. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club noted on Sunday that the occupation regime continues to hold 49 of those arrested.

The latest journalists to be arrested were Bilal Al-Taweel and Mahmoud Fatafta from Hebron. Under the pretext of “completing the investigation,” their detention has been extended until 9 June.

“The occupation authorities continue to escalate the policy of arresting journalists, in addition to threatening them, field attacks, detention and ongoing prosecution, in light of the continued genocidal war against our people in Gaza,” said the organisation. It pointed out that among the detained journalists are four women: Ikhlas Sawalha, Bushra Al-Taweel, and Asmaa Harish, who are held with neither charge nor trial under administrative detention, and Rula Hassanein, who is detained under the pretext of “incitement”.

The Prisoners’ Club also reported that one journalist, Somaya Jawabra, is under house arrest, “and subject to strict restrictions imposed on her.” It added that 12 of the journalists were arrested in Gaza and have been forcibly disappeared, most of them during the Israeli attack on Al-Shifa Hospital. “They are facing all the revenge and punitive measures imposed on prisoners and detainees in general, in addition to torture and humiliation, starvation and systematic medical crimes.”

The organisation called on international human rights organisations, including the UN, to uphold their responsibilities regarding the crimes committed by the occupation regime against Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

In a related development, the official Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa reported that, on Sunday, the Israeli occupation forces arrested its employee Rasha Harzallah in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.

“The Israeli occupation intelligence agency summoned her for questioning at a detention centre in the Ariel settlement,” the journalist’s family was quoted as saying. “She went there with a lawyer, and upon their arrival, she was informed that she would be detained for 72 hours, without informing her of the reasons or bringing any charges against her.”

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, the occupation state has also killed 107 journalists and media workers in Gaza since last October. At least 224 humanitarian workers, including UN staff, have been killed by Israel in the same period, more than three times as many humanitarian workers killed in any single conflict recorded in a single year. Moreover, Israeli attacks have killed 493 health workers in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

READ: Israel detains 10 more Palestinians in occupied West Bank