On August 30, 2024, Israeli security forces arrested Palestinian freelance journalist and photographer Ramez Awad at his family home in the Palestinian village of Jifna, five miles north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, according to the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate and Amani Sarahneh, spokesperson for the Palestinian Prisoners Club, who spoke to CPJ.
Awad's cousin, Amjad Awad, told the Beirut-based regional press freedom organization SKeyes that Israeli soldiers broke into Awad’s home, checked his ID card, and took him away without informing the family of the charges against him or where they were taking him.
Awad’s brother, Rani Awad, told CPJ that Awad was being held in the West Bank’s Ofer Prison, and had been charged with incitement. He said the journalist’s court hearings had been delayed.
A court document, reviewed by CPJ, included a court request for a medical check for Awad and for “prison authorities to allow Ramez to obtain some clothes and blankets.” CPJ was unable to determine the status of Awad’s health in custody.
On December 18, 2023, an Israeli soldier shot Awad, injuring his thigh, while he was covering Israeli military operations, according to news reports and the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate.
CPJ routinely contacts the Israel Defense Forces' North America Media Desk about its arrests of journalists. In one 2024 response, the IDF said it detains ‘individuals suspected of involvement in terrorist activity,' but has either provided no evidence or unsubstantiated evidence to CPJ to support these suspicions. CPJ has also contacted the Israeli Prison Service, the Palestinian General Intelligence Service, and Shin Bet about Palestinian journalists arrested in the West Bank but received no replies.
On November 19, 2025, Ramez Awad was sentenced to two years in prison.