Palestinian journalist Mohammad Badr surrendered himself to Israeli custody on October 28, 2023, after Israeli military forces arrested his wife, journalist Soujoud Al-Assi, earlier that day to pressure Badr to turn himself in. He was later placed in administrative detention. Israeli authorities released Badr on August 26, 2024, after 10 months in detention.
Badr is a reporter and columnist for the Palestinian online website Al-Hadath, where he also works in the Hebrew translations department. He has also contributed columns on Palestinian prisoners’ affairs to news websites including the Quds News Network and Metras.
Badr’s most recent reporting, published in Al-Hadath in September 2023, details a Palestinian prisoner’s legal battles with Israel to be declared a prisoner of war and a freedom fighter rather than a security threat. Another piece analyzes Israeli military policy toward the militant group Hezbollah and Iran.
Badr told CPJ that Israeli forces had pursued him for 10 days before he surrendered and threatened his family, including telling his mother that they would kill him if he did not turn himself in. He said that after he surrendered, his family members were released.
On November 7, 2023, Badr was placed in administrative detention for six months, according to a Facebook post by the official Commission of Detainees Affairs. Under administrative detention procedures, authorities may hold detainees for six months without charge if they suspect the detainee of planning to commit a future offense, and then extend the detention an unlimited number of times, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. Judges may accept evidence against the detainee without disclosing it on security grounds.
Badr told CPJ that he was subjected to severe torture on several occasions in detention, including on December 4, 2023, when his hands and legs were bound for nearly an entire day and he was beaten with metal and wooden sticks, kicked, struck on the head with metal restraints, and sprayed with gas while held in a small cell. He said that the same day he was interrogated by Israeli intelligence officers about his journalistic work and was given a choice between collaborating with Israeli intelligence as a spy or facing harsher torture and a longer prison term.
He also described being beaten several times in Negev Prison, leaving him with a cut tongue that made him unable to eat for two weeks; during that period, he survived only on water despite severe pain. Badr added that he was verbally threatened with sexual assault, which did not occur, and that he was strip-searched multiple times.
According to Badr, he was never charged and remained in administrative detention. He added that the court decision upholding his administrative detention acknowledged that his secret file did not indicate that he posed a security threat.
Badr told CPJ that he lost 40 kilograms (88 pounds) during his imprisonment because of what he described as a starvation policy practiced by the Israeli prison authorities.
Badr was detained as part of the mass arrests Israeli forces conducted in the occupied West Bank in the wake of October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, prompting Israel to declare war on the militant group.
Badr was among the journalists whose testimony was included in the CPJ special report “We returned from hell,” published in February 2026, which compiles accounts from 58 journalists who reported patterns of abuse, torture, and mistreatment against Palestinian journalists inside Israeli prisons.
The Israeli military did not respond to CPJ’s repeated requests for comment on specific allegations by journalists in the report, instead requesting ID numbers and geographic coordinates that CPJ does not collect or provide. When asked about allegations of physical and sexual abuse, starvation, and the investigation and accountability process, an army spokesperson said “individuals detained are treated in accordance with international law,” adding that the armed forces “have never, and will never, deliberately target journalists,” and that any violations of protocol “will be looked into.”
CPJ also emailed the Israel Prison Service (IPS) regarding the allegations in the report. In response, the IPS said “all prisoners are detained according to the law” and that “all basic rights are fully upheld by professionally trained prison guards.” The service said it was unaware of the claims described, and that to its knowledge “no such events have occurred,” but noted that “prisoners and detainees have the right to file a complaint that will be fully examined and addressed by official authorities.”