Israeli military forces arrested Palestinian journalist Nidal Elian, editor-in-chief at the satellite channel Al-Quds Today, on October 22, 2024, in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. Israeli authorities released him in Gaza City on October 13, 2025, after nearly a year in detention.
Elian told CPJ that after he was arrested, Israeli forces beat him with sticks and rifle butts, forced him to remain in a prostration position on the ground, prevented him from praying or relieving himself, cursed him, and forced him to strip naked. He said he was sent to Sde Teiman detention camp, then to the Naftali military camp in Nazareth, then back to Sde Teiman, and later to Negev Prison.
Describing what he said was a year-long ordeal in Israeli prisons and detention centers, Elian told CPJ that he was subjected to repeated beatings during prison raids, insults and abuse, forced to remain in a prostration position under soldiers’ feet, kept blindfolded and handcuffed for long periods, and deprived of personal hygiene items.
Elian said he appeared before a court four times via video conference, met his lawyer twice, and was accused of supporting terrorism.
He described the food given to detainees as portions suitable only for a small child. Elian said famine in northern Gaza before his arrest had already reduced his weight from 76 kilograms (168 pounds) to 59 (130 pounds), and that he lost an additional kilogram in prison.
Elian added that three days before his release, an Israeli intelligence officer told him he would be among those set free and threatened to kill him if he returned to journalistic work.
Alaa Skafi, director of 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. Skafi and B’Tselem both described overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and abuse at Israeli prison facilities housing Palestinian journalists.
Israel’s military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, which began after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, have devastated the local press. Israel has killed scores of journalists in Gaza as well as six in Lebanon, jailed dozens of Palestinian journalists from Gaza and the West Bank, and destroyed much of the press infrastructure in Gaza, all while preventing the foreign press from entering Gaza.
Elian 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.”