On December 12, 2023, Israeli military forces arrested Palestinian freelance journalist Ikhlas Sawalha at a temporary military checkpoint at the entrance to Deir Sharaf, west of the West Bank city of Nablus, after searching her car, and took her to Damon Prison near the northern Israeli city of Haifa, according to news reports. She was released on August 9, 2024.
Several charges were brought against Sawalha related to her journalism, the Palestinian press freedom group MADAreported.
On December 21, 2023, the Ofer military court placed Sawalha in administrative detention for six months, according to the Commission of Detainees Affairs, which supports Palestinian prisoners, MADA, and the journalist’s sister, who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals.
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.
Sawalha was blindfolded upon arrest and strip searched, and female soldiers kicked her and beat her with their hands, she told CPJ after her release, on May 12, 2025. Sawalha said she was denied access to her lawyer and attended closed military court sessions where she was not informed of the evidence against her.
Sawalha revealed that she was subjected to torture, including beatings by hand and with the military boots of female soldiers, in addition to being subjected to strip searches. During her time in prison, she lost 2 kilograms (4 pounds) in weight, she said.
On February 8, 2024, Sawalha’s lawyer, Hassan Abbadi, described on Facebook his visit to the journalist in Damon Prison, where he said conditions were poor, with overcrowded cells, water leaking from the ceiling, bad food, and bed bugs.
Sawalha was released on August 9, 2024, Sawalha’s sister told CPJ via messaging app on October 2, 2024.
According to CPJ’s review of Sawalha’s Facebook account, which has since been removed, she is a media graduate from the West Bank’s University of Birzeit. Sawalha ran a YouTube channel, which had hundreds of subscribers at the time of her arrest but has since been removed from the platform. She posted reports on events calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners and an interview she did for the Quds Feed Network, a Palestinian media network. Sawalha’s sister Walla told CPJ that Sawalha also worked with a local charity, teaching journalism to students.
Sawalha 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.”