On November 7, 2023, Israeli security forces arrested Palestinian freelance journalist Mohammad Ayad at his home in the West Bank village of Abu Dis, 11 kilometers (7 miles) east of Jerusalem, according to newsreports and the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate.
“He was charged with incitement because of Facebook posts, even though most of them fell within the scope of his journalistic work,” his wife Sireen Awad told CPJ on March 18, 2024, adding that her husband was being held in Ofer Prison, near Ramallah.
Ayad was released on July 5, 2024.
On November 6, 2025, Ayad told CPJ in an interview that he was subjected to beatings, strip searches, and pepper spray and lost 20 kilograms due to not being provided sufficient food.
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 did not receive any replies.