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. He was released from administrative detention on August 10, 2025.
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-Saadi, who was later arrested, told CPJ via messaging app on August 12 that Zyoud studied journalism at the Jenin-based Arab American University and worked 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.
After his release, Zyoud told CPJ that 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 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, he said. Zyoud said he lost about 20 kilograms (44 pounds) due to what he described as “deliberate starvation and extremely limited food.” He said that during his 12-month administrative detention, he was never presented with evidence supporting the claim that he posed a security threat.
Zyoud was among the journalists whose testimony was included in the CPJ special report, “We returned from hell,” published in February 2026, which compiles accounts from 58 journalists who reported patterns of abuse, torture, and mistreatment against Palestinian journalists inside Israeli prisons.
The Israeli military did not respond to CPJ’s repeated requests for comment on specific allegations by journalists in the report, instead requesting ID numbers and geographic coordinates that CPJ does not collect or provide. When asked about allegations of physical and sexual abuse, starvation, and the investigation and accountability process, an army spokesperson said “individuals detained are treated in accordance with international law,” adding that the armed forces “have never, and will never, deliberately target journalists,” and that any violations of protocol “will be looked into.”
CPJ also emailed the Israel Prison Service (IPS) regarding the allegations in the report. In response, the IPS said “all prisoners are detained according to the law” and that “all basic rights are fully upheld by professionally trained prison guards.” The service said it was unaware of the claims described, and that to its knowledge “no such events have occurred,” but noted that “prisoners and detainees have the right to file a complaint that will be fully examined and addressed by official authorities.”