On December 26, 2023, Israeli military forces arrested Hamad Taqatqa from his West Bank home in Beit Fajjar, a town 18 miles south of Bethlehem, handcuffed and blindfolded him, seized three cell phones and a Canon camera, and took him away, according to the Palestinian press freedom group MADA, the Beirut-based regional press freedom organization SKeyes, and news reports.
Taqatqa contributes to the Bethlehem-based radio station Radio Baladna and the news agency Palestine News Network (PNN), among others.
On January 11, 2024, the military court in Ofer prison, in the West Bank, where Taqatqa was initially held, charged him with “incitement on social media, supporting a terrorist organization, and influencing public opinion in a way that may harm public order,” according to his brother Wael Taqatqa, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. CPJ also reviewed court documents confirming the charges.
The charges relate to several posts he shared on his Facebook and Telegram accounts, which have 13,000 followers and over 8,000 subscribers respectively, between October 7 and 10, 2023, the court documents show.
Wael Taqatqa told CPJ via messaging app on October 2 that his brother has since been transferred to Megiddo prison in northern Israel. On December 10, an Israeli military court sentenced Taqatqa to 15 months in prison and a fine of 6,000 shekels (US$1,670), according to the journalist’s brother. CPJ was unable to determine the status of his health in detention.
Taqatqa was arrested in the course of Israel’s recent military operations in the region, which began after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Israel has killed scores of journalists in Gaza as well as six in Lebanon, jailed dozens of Palestinian journalists from the West Bank and Gaza, and destroyed much of the press infrastructure in Gaza, all while preventing the foreign press from entering Gaza.
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.