On March 19, 2024, Palestinian freelance journalist Mohammed Nafez Qaoud was visiting a displaced relative when he was arrested by Israeli military forces during their two-week siege of Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, according to Qaoud’s wife, Asal Sabri Abu Taqiyya, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app and the Beirut-based regional press freedom group SKeyes. He was later released on February 27, 2025.
The location of Qaoud, who contributes to the family magazine Al-Saada, Gaza’s Al-Rai Radio, was unknown until August 15 when the Palestinian prisoner support group Addameer named him as one of 31 prisoners from Gaza that its lawyer had visited in the West Bank’s Ofer prison.
Upon his release, Qaoud described to CPJ abuse he and other detainees endured while being held inside the hospital first, in what had become a makeshift detention facility. He alleges “tens of hours of continuous torture” before his eventual transfer to Sde Teiman detention centre and later to Ofer prison.
He said that Israeli soldiers forced him to strip completely despite the cold temperatures. He added that, “to increase their suffering,” soldiers poured cold water on him every five minutes, in addition to subjecting him to severe beatings and verbal insults.
Qaoud said he was transported with his hands tied and eyes blindfolded in trucks, while being beaten with batons and weapons on his head and back.
He said he was taken to Sde Teiman detention facility, where prisoners were subjected to violence by police dogs. According to him, detainees were randomly selected for these attacks. Although the dogs were muzzled, the muzzles left scars and wounds on their bodies during the assaults. He said they were also subjected to verbal abuse by prison authorities.
He said he remained in Sde Teiman for 100 days with his hands bound and eyes blindfolded.
In Ofer prison, he said detainees were not provided sufficient medical care and hygiene supplies, and experienced weekly violent “crackdowns.” He recounts that around 25 prisoners were held in a cell designed for only 14 people, and during winter, rainwater leaked into the cells through open windows.
He said he was forced to lie on the cold ground and he developed asthma while in detention, and now uses an inhaler to relieve his symptoms.
He alleged that soldiers carried out what was described as a “reception beating,” where detainees experience severe physical assault upon arrival at the prison. This caused injuries to his right foot, which he said, due to medical neglect, became infected “to the point that worms emerged from the wound while he was still in prison.”
He also told CPJ that he lost sensation in his hands due to prolonged use of restraints.
Qaoud stated that he entered Israeli detention weighing 96 kilograms (211 lbs) and was released weighing 58 kilograms (127 lbs) as a result of inadequate food.
Qaoud 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.”