On January 12, 2024, Israeli security forces arrested Amjad Arafat, a reporter for the Abu Dhabi-based news website Al-Ain News, after breaking into his aunt’s house in Al-Maghazi camp in central Gaza, according to the Beirut-based regional press freedom group SKeyes and a Facebook post by his brother, Rafat Arafat.
The security forces held men and women in different rooms and arrested Arafat and three other relatives and took them away, Arafat’s brother told SKeyes, adding that the family were staying with their aunt after being displaced from Gaza City.
On September 4, Saleh Mohammed, a lawyer hired by Arafat’s family to find out what has happened to him since his arrest, told CPJ via messaging app that he contacted the Israel Defense Forces’ department responsible for Palestinian detainees in July.
“Up until now we haven’t received a reply to our inquiry, which is whether or not Amjad is being held by them,” Mohammed added. “Under Israeli law, they have three months to respond to us and that period can be extended for a further six months.”
Rafat Arafat told CPJ in October 2024 that he had no new information on his brother’s case, including details on his health or any charges he might be facing.
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.
Israel’s military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, which began after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, have devastated the local press. Israel has killed scores of journalists in Gaza as well as six in Lebanon, jailed dozens of Palestinian journalists from Gaza and the West Bank, and destroyed much of the press infrastructure in Gaza, all while preventing the foreign pressfrom entering Gaza.
Arafat covered the impact of the Gaza war for Al-Ain News, including the rising prices of food and the accumulation of garbage on the streets of Gaza. Prior to the war, Arafat contributed to the independent news websites Raseef22 and the Noonpost.
CPJ emailed the Israel Defense Forces, Israel’s Security Agency, also known as Shin Bet, and the Israeli Prison Service in late 2024 for comment on the cases of imprisoned Palestinian journalists but received no response.