On September 17, 2026, Israeli forces raided the home of freelance journalist Alaa al-Rimawi in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, and detained him, according to his son Mohammed al-Rimawi.
Mohammed told CPJ that his father is being held at Ofer prison, west of Ramallah. On September 24 Al-Rimawi received a four-month administrative detention order, allowing him to be held in custody without charge.
Al-Rimawi was previously detained by Israeli authorities in 2021 and again on October 19, 2023. He was released nearly two years later, on October 6, 2025, after repeated extensions of administrative detention without charge or trial.
Al-Rimawi’s testimony on the conditions of his previous detention was included in the CPJ special report, “We returned from hell,” published in February 2026, which compiles the accounts of 58 journalists who reported patterns of abuse, torture and mistreatment against Palestinian journalists inside Israeli prisoners. Al-Rimawi recounted experiences of severe physical abuse, sexual harassment, systematic medical neglect, and starvation.
CPJ emailed the Israeli military regarding the reasons for his arrest, his current conditions, and allegations of property damage during the raid. The military did not reply by the time of publication.