3/6/2024–|Last updated: 6/3/202403:38 PM (Mecca time)
A Palestinian non-governmental organization reported that the Israeli army has arrested 80 Palestinian journalists since the start of the war on the Gaza Strip on October 7.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said that the occupation continued to detain 49 of them, the last of whom were Bilal al-Taweel and Mahmoud Fatafta from Hebron, noting that their detention had been extended until June 9 under the pretext of “completing the investigation.”
The club stressed that “the occupation authorities continue to escalate the policy of arresting journalists, in addition to threats, field attacks, detention and ongoing prosecution, in light of the continuing war of extermination against our people in Gaza.”
He pointed out that among the detained journalists are four female journalists: Ikhlas Sawalha, Bushra Al-Taweel, Asmaa Harish – who are subject to administrative detention – and Rula Hassanein, who is detained under the pretext of “incitement.”
The Prisoner Club indicated that there is a journalist, Somaya Jawabra, under house arrest, “subject to strict conditions imposed on her.”
Regarding the detained journalists from Gaza, the club said that the number of detained journalists “who are under enforced disappearance is 12 journalists, the majority of whom were arrested during the widespread aggression launched by the occupation against Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.”
The Israeli army had previously stormed the Shifa Medical Complex twice, the first on November 16 after besieging it for a week, then withdrew about 10 days later, renewing its storming in mid-March, then withdrawing two weeks after a military operation that transformed the most important medical edifice in the Strip. To ruins.
According to the Prisoner’s Club, Israel uses administrative detention “under the pretext of having a secret file (…), as a tool to impose more control and censorship on journalistic work.”
He added that 23 journalists have been detained after the 7th of October until today, “of whom 4 were released, and 19 remain.”
Administrative detention is a detention decision ordered by an Israeli military under the pretext of a security threat, without an indictment, and it extends to 6 months, which can be extended. The intelligence services present to the court what is called a secret file, which the lawyer and detainee are prevented from accessing.
The Prisoners’ Club indicated that the detained journalists face “all the retaliatory and punitive measures imposed on prisoners and detainees in general, in addition to torture and humiliation, the policy of starvation and systematic medical crimes.”
He called on “all international human rights institutions, led by the United Nations, to assume their responsibilities regarding the crimes carried out by the occupation against prisoners and detainees.”
International and UN organizations have previously warned of Israel’s targeting of journalistic personnel, especially in the Gaza Strip, while Tel Aviv ignored these warnings.
The Israeli war on Gaza left more than 118,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and about 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly.