On November 16, 2023, Israeli security forces arrested Palestinian journalist Alaa Sarraj, a freelance photographer, on Gaza City’s Salah al-Din Street, according to the Beirut-based regional press freedom group SKeyes and the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. On October 13, 2025, 23 months after his arrest, Israeli security forces released Sarraj as part of a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and the Hamas movement.
A relative of Sarraj’s, who preferred to remain anonymous, told SKeyes that Sarraj was arrested as he was fleeing the city for the southern Gaza Strip.
After Sarraj was arrested, a source close to Sarraj who asked to remain anonymous told CPJ via messaging app that the family had found out through a friend who was imprisoned with him in the same location that Sarraj was being held in Nafha Prison, 42 miles south of the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
The relative said that Sarraj used to make advertisements for different local businesses, including retail stores and restaurants, and for a time worked for nonprofit Islamic Relief, but that when the war in Gaza started on October 7, 2023, he began to work as a journalist at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital along with his cousin Roshdi Sarraj, the founder of Ain Media, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on October 22, 2023.
Sarraj told CPJ after his release that, upon being arrested, Israeli soldiers “subjected me to a brief interrogation, physically assaulted me, and then transported me to the 'Gaza envelope' area, where I was held for 14 hours. From there, I was transferred to the Sde Teiman detention center, then to Ofer Prison — where I remained for approximately four months — followed by Nafha Prison, and finally to the Negev Prison, where I remained until my release."
While in detention, Sarraj was subjected to interrogations, daily beatings, and torture, including psychological torture, he said. "I was subjected to immense pressure through threats against my family — including threats to kill them — as well as verbal abuse directed at my family and insults against the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).”
He lost approximately 24 kilograms (53 pounds) of his body weight as a result of the starvation policy implemented by the Israeli prison administration.
Sarraj stated that he appeared before the court via video conference on more than 18 occasions and met with his lawyer twice. He noted that, during the initial stages of his detention, his remand was extended to allow for the completion of the investigation. However, he added that he was subsequently charged as an "unlawful combatant."
Alaa Skafi, director of Palestinian prisoner support group Addameer, told CPJ that journalists from Gaza are generally held under the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law. According to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, the law allows Israel to hold detainees for long periods of time without charge and with limited access to legal counsel. Skafi and B’Tselem both described overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and abuse at Israeli prison facilities housing Palestinian journalists.
Sarraj 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.
He 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.”