Israeli forces arrested Palestinian journalist Imad Ifranji, manager of the Gaza bureau of the Al-Quds Newspaper, during a raid on Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City in the early hours of March 18, 2024.
Ifranji told CPJ that when Israeli soldiers detained him, they forced him to strip to his underwear and assaulted him after learning he was a journalist. He said soldiers handcuffed and briefly interrogated him, later transporting him with other detainees, blindfolded and bound, by truck to a military area near the Gaza border.
During the transfer, he lost consciousness after going more than a day without food while fasting during Ramadan.
According to Ifranji, he was later taken to Sde Teiman Detention Camp, where detainees were again forced to remove their clothes in front of guards and met with police dogs and stun grenades. He said he was interrogated there before being transferred to Ofer Prison and later to Ktzi'ot Prison in southern Israel’s Negev Desert.
Ifranji said Israeli intelligence officers beat and threatened him during interrogations and warned that his family could be killed. He also described a prison crackdown in Ofer during which he was struck in the head until he bled.
Prison authorities, he said, withheld medications he requires for blood pressure, spinal disc problems, and colon issues. After being kept blindfolded for about 100 days, he temporarily lost his eyesight when the blindfold was removed. He spoke about the prison conditions in an Al Jazeera special report.
He said he appeared before a court three times via video conference and was accused of belonging to a terrorist organization and classified as an “unlawful combatant,” allegations he denied. Alaa Skafi, director of Palestinian prisoner support group Addameer, told CPJ that journalists from Gaza are generally held under the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law. According to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, the law allows Israel to hold detainees for long periods of time without charge and with limited access to legal counsel.
Ifranji also told CPJ that food portions in detention were extremely limited, leading him to lose 43 kilograms (94 pounds), dropping from 110 kilograms (242 pounds) to 67 kilograms (147 pounds) during his imprisonment.
Israeli authorities released Ifranji on October 13, 2025, after about 19 months in detention as part of a ceasefire deal. He said an Israeli intelligence officer warned him that if he returned to journalistic work he would be killed, according to his account.
Ifranji’s testimony was included in the CPJ special report, “We returned from hell,” published in February 2026, that outlined 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, instead requesting ID numbers and geographic coordinates that CPJ does not collect or provide. When asked about allegations of physical, sexual abuse and 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 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 the “prisoners and detainees have the right to file a complaint that will be fully examined and addressed by official authorities.”