Israel holds 37 Palestinian journalists — Palestinian Prisoner Society
Israeli prisons are holding 37 Palestinian journalists, 19 of whom are under administrative detention without charges or trial. The Palestinian Prisoner Society said this, Anadolu Agency reports.
According to the organization, all 37 journalists were detained after October 2023. It claims that Israeli authorities are persecuting Palestinian media workers through arrests, imprisonment, solitary confinement and criminal prosecution in connection with their work and freedom of expression.
Detentions in Bethlehem
Among those most recently detained are journalists Muath Ammarna and Sabri Jibrin. They were detained on Thursday after Israeli forces raided their homes in Bethlehem, in the southern West Bank. The Palestinian Prisoner Society said Ammarna is being detained for the third time because of his journalistic work.
The organization also reported the sentencing of journalist and writer Mahmoud Fatafta to 48 months in prison on charges of “incitement,” as Israel defines it. According to the society, Israeli authorities are increasingly using such charges against journalists, as well as administrative detention based on materials that authorities call secret.
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Detention conditions
All 19 journalists held under administrative detention are from the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This accounts for 51% of the total number of detained journalists, the organization said.
It also drew attention to the case of 33-year-old journalist Bushra al-Tawil, who was transferred from Damon prison in northern Israel to a solitary cell in Ramla prison in the central part of the country. The organization reported increased isolation and other restrictions on Palestinian women prisoners, as well as food deprivation, failure to provide medical care and inadequate sanitary conditions.
According to the society, detained journalists face the same conditions as other Palestinian prisoners, including hunger, medical neglect, torture, ill-treatment, solitary confinement and deprivation of basic rights.
