On September 19, 2024, Israeli security forces arrested Palestinian freelance journalist Mujahed al-Saadi, who contributes to the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Araby al-Jadeed and the local broadcaster Palestine Today TV, during the night at his home in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, according to news reports.
Al-Saadi’s brother, Amjad al-Saadi, told the Beirut-based press freedom group SKeyes that the soldiers broke into his brother’s home, assaulted and beat him, and detained him in his pajamas.
“They didn’t allow him to change his clothes or put on his shoes and they seized his cell phones,” he said.
Al-Saadi was placed in administrative detention for six months on September 30, according to his brother Ibrahim al-Saadi, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app on October 25, 2024. He was being held in Megiddo prison. Under administrative detention procedures, authorities may hold detainees for six months without charge if they suspect the detainee of planning to commit a future offense, and then extend the detention an unlimited number of times, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. Judges may accept evidence against the detainee without disclosing it on security grounds.
CPJ emailed the Israeli Defense Forces, Israel Security Agency, also known as Shin Bet, and the Israeli Prison Service in late 2024 for comment on the cases of imprisoned Palestinian journalists but received no response.
In March 2026, Al-Saadi’s wife, Raya, told CPJ he is currently held at Ktzi’ot/Negev Prison, in southern Israel, and that he has not been charged or sentenced. His administrative detention order has been renewed at least five times: his first order lasted six months and ended on March 18, 2025. The second was renewed for four months, from March 19 to July 17, 2025. The third extended from July 17 to November 16, 2025, followed by a fourth from November 16, 2025, to March 15, 2026. The most recent order is set to expire on July 14, 2026.
Al-Saadi’s wife added that his lawyer is allowed to visit him only once every one to two months.
Al-Saadi’s wife told CPJ that the journalist was beaten in prison by officers, who broke his eyeglasses he direly needed to see. The authorities have refused to provide him with medical treatment or transfer him to a clinic, and he also suffers from rheumatoid arthritis.
CPJ emailed the Israeli Prison Services (IPS) for comment on the health condition of al-Saadi but has not received a response by the time of publication.