On June 23, 2025, Israeli forces arrested Palestinian camera operator Ahmed Al-Khatib, who works for Al-Madina TV, a private media outlet based in Nablus, and the Lebanon-based news agency UNews, from his home in the town of Beitunia, near Ramallah, in the central West Bank.
Al Khatib’s wife, Ersal Shrouf, told CPJ that Israeli forces raided their home at dawn, arrested him, and detained him at the Israeli Huwara camp, south of Nablus. She also said that Al-Khatib managed to call her for two minutes on June 25, 2025.
On July 1, 2025, an Israeli court sentenced Al-Khatib to six months in administrative detention. Shrouf, who has four children with Al-Khatib, said his prison term stretches from the day of his arrest to the end of December 2025.
When CPJ reached out to Shrouf in March 2026, she confirmed that Al-Khatib was being held at Ktzi’ot Prison in the Negev desert. She confirmed that his administrative detention was extended for an additional six months on December 23, 2025. He was only granted two lawyer visits throughout his detention.
On his health condition, Shrouf said that her husband had contracted scabies while in custody due to poor hygiene conditions in Israeli detentions centers, and that he had lost approximately 20 kilograms (44 pounds) in prison.
The details about the conditions were consistent with testimonies CPJ collected from released Palestinian journalists from Israeli prisons.
CPJ emailed the Israeli Prison Services for comment on imprisonment conditions but had not received a reply at the time of publication.