On July 20, 2024, at 3:00 a.m., Israeli security forces raided the house of the Palestinian media student and freelance journalist Hamza Jaber in the West Bank village of Jaba’ in Jenin, aiming to arrest him, but didn’t find him. The officers arrested his brother Yousef Jaber instead, to force Jaber to surrender at an Israeli checkpoint, according to what Yousef Jaber, who spoke to CPJ, said he heard from the military commander of the raid, and according to news reports.
Jaber turned himself in on the same day at 1 p.m. at the Israeli checkpoint Dotan, and his brother was released later on the same day.
Yousef Jaber told CPJ via messaging app, that Israeli forces attacked his family, damaged their home, furniture, and cars, and confiscated all the computers from his family’s house, including his mother’s and brother’s computer. Yousef Jaber provided CPJ with photos of the damage to the two cars and the house caused by Israeli officers during the raid.
According to the August 15, 2024, Israeli Shomron military court document that CPJ reviewed, Jaber will be held under administrative detention for six months. He is currently being held in Meggido prison.
CPJ was unable to determine the status of the journalist’s health in prison.
Under administrative detention procedures, authorities may hold detainees for six months without charge if they suspect the detainee of planning to commit a future offense, and then extend the detention an unlimited number of times, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. Judges may accept evidence against the detainee without disclosing it on security grounds.
Jaber 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.
The North America Desk of the Israel Defense Forces referred CPJ’s email requesting information on the charges against the journalist, the reason for his arrest, and conditions in prison to the Shin Bet security agency. The agency did not respond to CPJ’s subsequent email.