On August 27, 2025, Israeli forces arrested 40-year-old Palestinian freelance journalist and lecturer Ossayd Amarneh, while traveling with his wife and children in the Qabr Hilwa area, east of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank.
Soldiers stopped their car and forcibly removed Amarneh from the car, searched the vehicle, and took him away, leaving his family behind in shock, the journalist’s father, Abdul Majid Amarneh, told CPJ.
On September 4, 2025, an Israeli military court ordered Amarneh be held in administrative detention until February 27, 2026, according to a court order reviewed by CPJ that cited a “secret file” and said he posed a “security threat to the region.” Authorities subsequently canceled a hearing scheduled for September 7, the journalist’s father told CPJ. On September 6, Amarneh’s cousin, journalist Khaled Abu Aisheh, confirmed to CPJ that he was being held in Ofer Prison, near Ramallah.
On February 26, 2026, the Israeli military court at Ofer Prison extended Amarneh’s administrative detention for a second time, until August 25, 2026. His wife, Ansam Amarneh, told CPJ that the extension was issued without formal charges. She noted that administrative detention orders can be renewed repeatedly, meaning his detention could be extended again, beyond August 25, 2026.
Following months of administrative detention, Amarneh was interrogated on June 2, 2026, and his detention was subsequently extended by eight days. On June 10, 2026, a court again extended his detention until 15 June 2026. Amarneh’s lawyer told CPJ these developments suggest that authorities may be shifting his case from a purely administrative-detention framework to a new investigative track based on alleged new evidence. No details about the nature of the evidence or potential allegations have been made public.
On August 31, 2025, an Israeli military spokesperson informed CPJ via a messaging app that Amarneh was placed under administrative detention due to “security-related activity.”
Israeli soldiers had previously arrested Amarneh at a military checkpoint between Ramallah and Bethlehem on December 25, 2024. He later told CPJ that he was transferred to the Atarot police station in East Jerusalem, after soldiers found a kitchen knife, which his lawyer says he used for food, inside his car. Amarneh said he was interrogated during his trial about his journalism and Facebook posts, including his coverage of Israeli settlers dancing at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque complex and his support for the people of Gaza. He was sentenced to four months in prison on charges of incitement, reduced to two months on appeal, and released February 23, 2025.