On December 11, 2023, Israeli security forces arrested Palestinian photographer and camera operator Osama Dabour, who works for the pro-Islamic Jihad broadcaster Al-Quds Today, in a school in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza, according to the Beirut-based regional press freedom group SKeyes and Dabour’s wife, Amani al-Basyouni, who spoke to CPJ. He was released on October 13, 2025, as part of a deal between Israel and Hamas, after about 22 months in detention.
Dabour told CPJ that on the day of his arrest, he had finished filming a report at the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia camp and returned to the school where he and his family were sheltering. Shortly afterward, he said, an Israeli airstrike hit a target near the school, wounding him with shrapnel in his right hand, head, and back, and causing a fracture in his hand.
Dabour said that hours later, Israeli forces raided the school and arrested him after learning that he was a television cameraman, despite his injuries not having been treated. He said he was first transferred to the Zikim military area north of Gaza, then to Sde Teiman detention camp, and later to Negev prison.
Describing what he called a long ordeal of suffering and deprivation, Dabour told CPJ that interrogators accused him of knowing the whereabouts of Israeli hostages and Palestinian militants. He said that during interrogation, his hands were kept cuffed for days at a time, causing swelling. He developed large boils and scabies because of poor hygiene conditions, which he believed was deliberate, since many detainees were affected.
Dabour said he lost seven kilograms (15 pounds) in detention, dropping to 66 kilograms (146 pounds), because of the very small food portions provided. He added that he lost several teeth because of malnutrition.
Israeli authorities brought him before a court four times via video conference and accused him of “posing a threat to the State of Israel” and needing to remain in prison, according to his account.
Dabour told CPJ that he was strip-searched several times, especially when being transferred for lawyer visits or interrogation, and that Israeli intelligence officers threatened to kill him if he returned to media work.
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. Skafi and B’Tselem both described overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and abuse at Israeli prison facilities housing Palestinian journalists.
Dabour 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.”