Israeli soldiers arrested freelance Palestinian journalist Anas Howari, a contributor to the local independent fact-checking site Tayaqan and editor at Al-Jarmaq News, following a raid on his home in the occupied West Bank town of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus, on May 25, 2026, and released him on June 21, after holding him for 28 days without charge.
Two days after his arrest, Howari’s wife, Watan Howari, told CPJ that her husband was being held at Howara detention center, near Nablus, but had not seen a lawyer or been informed of the reason for his arrest.
Following his release, Howari told CPJ that Israeli authorities transferred him to the Israel Prison Service's Kishon Detention Facility south of Haifa, and later held him for a week at the Jalameh Interrogation Center before releasing him without charge.
“I remained detained for 28 days. No charges were filed against me, and all the interrogations were about my journalistic work at Al-Jarmaq and the news we publish there,” he said. Howari said authorities twice prevented him from meeting with his lawyer and described detention conditions as “very degrading,” adding that he had lost 6kg and experienced health problems while in custody.
Following a CPJ email to the Israeli Defense Forces International Press Desk, the IDF said they could not comment without Howari’s national identity card number, information that CPJ does not and will not collect, adding that it does “not intentionally harm journalists or their family members” and operates in “accordance with international law … to mitigate harm to civilians, including journalists.”