On August 12, 2024, Israeli security forces arrested Palestinian freelance journalist Hamza Zyoud at his home in the village of Silat al-Harithiya, six miles northwest of the West Bank city of Jenin, according to the Beirut-based regional press freedom group SKeyes and news reports.
Zyoud’s brother Ahmed was cited by SKeyes as saying that Israeli forces broke down the door of the family home, searched the house, and questioned Zyoud before handcuffing him and taking him away.
Local Palestinian journalist Mujahed al-Sa’adi, who was later arrested, told CPJ via messaging app on August 12 that Zyoud studies journalism at the Jenin-based Arab American University and works as a freelance journalist and camera operator for several media outlets, including BBC Arabic and Saudi-based Al-Arabiya. Zyoud also holds a press card, which CPJ has reviewed, issued by the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate and identifying him as a freelancer.
Zyoud was initially held under administrative detention at the Howara detention center, near the West Bank city of Nablus. His brother Ahmad Zyoud told CPJ on October 31, 2024, that Israeli authorities had moved him to Megiddo prison, in northern Israel. 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.
Zyoud was arrested in the course of Israel’s 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.
On August 10, 2025, Hamza Zyoud was released after spending a full year in administrative detention at Megiddo Prison.
Zyoud told CPJ that he was arrested and held under administrative detention. He said he was repeatedly beaten in Megiddo prison, handcuffed from behind and assaulted with hands, feet, military boots, batons, shields, and once with a plastic hose. Pepper spray was also used in the rooms of detainees.
Zyoud said that he contracted scabies in November 2024 and was denied treatment until his release. During the first two days of detention, he said that did not know where he was, later learning from other detainees that he had been transferred from Howara detention center to Megiddo after 20 days. Zyoud said he lost about 20 kilograms due to what he described as “deliberate starvation and extremely limited food”. He said that during 12-month administrative detention he was never presented with evidence to the claim that he posed a security threat.
CPJ’s email to the IDF International Press Desk received a reply requesting the ID number of the journalist, information that CPJ does not gather. The reply stated: “The IDF acts in accordance with Israeli law and international law, and protects the rights of individuals held in detention facilities under its responsibility. Any abuse of detainees, whether during their detention or during interrogation, violates the law and the directives of the IDF and as such is strictly prohibited. The IDF treats any such violations with the utmost seriousness, as they contradict its core values , and thoroughly examines concrete allegations concerning the abuse of detainees. The IDF completely rejects allegations regarding the systematic abuse of detainees.”