On November 7, 2023, Israeli security forces arrested Palestinian Huthifa Abu Jamous at his home in the village of Abu Dis, 10 kilometers (6 miles) east of Jerusalem, the freelance journalist told CPJ after his release.
He told CPJ in an interview on September 19, 2025, that soldiers handcuffed him and took him to Etzion prison, south of Bethlehem, and moved him to the West Bank’s Ofer Prison four days later.
Abu Jamous, who contributes to the Ramallah-based privately owned news agency Quds News Network and Jerusalem-based Al-Qastal News, told CPJ that he was beaten during the journey and subjected to physical assault and insults during questioning.
Abu Jamous was held in administrative detention in Ofer Prison, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainee Affairs, the Beirut-based regional press freedom organization SKeyes.
Israel’s practice of administrative detention allows a military commander to detain an individual without charge, typically for six months, on the grounds of preventing them from committing a future offense. Administrative detention can be extended an unlimited number of times.
Abu Jamous’s father, Ali Dawod Jamous, told CPJ via messaging app on June 4, 2024, that the Ofer military court placed Jamous in administrative detention for six months on November 14, which was extended by four months on April 16, and upheld on May 16.
The military prosecutor accused Abu Jamous of incitement on social media, and of being a Hamas supporter who posed a security threat to the area, according to a copy of the military detention order, reviewed by CPJ.
Abu Jamous’s lawyer, Moataz Shqirat, rejected the prosecutor’s claims, and said the journalist had never been convicted of any crime, according to legal documents, reviewed by CPJ.
The judge said in the detention order that he had received a classified intelligence file that confirmed the need to place Abu Jamous in administrative detention.
Abu Jamous was previously arrested in 2018.
On September 5, 2024, Abu Jamous was released, news footage showed. He later told CPJ that he lost 18 kilograms during his 10-month detention due to what he described as “Israeli prison starvation policies.”
CPJ routinely contacts the Israel Defense Forces' North America Media Desk about its arrests of journalists. In one 2024 response, the IDF said it detains ‘individuals suspected of involvement in terrorist activity,' but has either provided no evidence or unsubstantiated evidence to CPJ to support these suspicions. CPJ has also contacted the Israeli Prison Service, the Palestinian General Intelligence Service, and Shin Bet about Palestinian journalists arrested in the West Bank but received no replies.