On February 15, 2024, Israeli forces arrested Palestinian freelance journalist Amr Abu Raida, who contributes to the Ramallah-based privately owned news agency Quds News Network, the local newspaper Al-Hadath, and the Qatari-funded broadcaster Al Jazeera, when they stormed Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza’s city of Khan Yunis, according to news reports.
Abu Raida reported on the situation in Khan Yunis and the destruction caused by Israeli airstrikes. On his personal Instagram account, which has over 75,000 followers, Abu Raida also posted videos of mass graves found near Nasser Hospital and videos of casualties caused by Israeli airstrikes.
In a statement on February 15, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari accused Abu Raida of membership in the militant group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and of firing shells from the hospital. On September 11, the Israeli broadcaster Kan 11 reported that Abu Raida had confessed during an interrogation to belonging to PFLP and ambushing Israeli security forces in Khan Yunis. Kan 11 reported that “the IDF had images of Abu Raida firing at an Israeli tank near Nir Oz kibbutz during the October 7 Hamas attack,” but the images were not broadcast.
Palestinian freelance journalist Mohammed Salama, who worked with Abu Raida in Nasser Hospital, rejected the allegations. “We were together inside the hospital and no shells ever came out of the hospital, nor did Amr ever participate or contribute to that from anywhere because we were working together on the media coverage of events,” he told CPJ via messaging app.
Abu Raida’s sister, Hanan Abu Raida, told CPJ via messaging app, “I am ready to challenge Israel regarding all the accusations against my brother. And I wonder, if my brother did any of the things he was accused of, how come they haven’t made it public?” she told CPJ via messaging app on September 13.
Hanan Abu Raida told CPJ on October 29 that her brother was held in Eshel prison in central Israel and that she had no new information on his case since September.
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 press from entering Gaza.
CPJ emailed the IDF, 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.