On October 25, 2023, Israeli military forces arrested Palestinian freelance journalist Radwan Qatanani, who covers issues related to Israel’s military occupation for several Palestinian news websites, including Etar, Arabi 21, Hadarat, and the Quds News Network. Qatanani was released on January 22, 2025, after 15 months in detention.
Israeli military forces searched Qatanani’s home in the Askar refugee camp, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus, in the early morning. When they failed to find the journalist there, they called him and asked him to come home. Qatanani returned to the house and was arrested, the journalist’s brother, Ali Qatanani, told Palestinian press freedom group MADA. Beirut-based regional press freedom organization SKeyes and the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate also reported on the arrest.
According to the official Commission of Detainees Affairs posts on Facebook, which have since been removed, an administrative detention order was issued against Qatanani on November 8, 2023. 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. The detention has been repeatedly renewed.
Ali Qatanani told CPJ via messaging app in October 2024 that Israeli forces were holding his brother in Ramon Prison in southern Israel; initially, he was held in Meggido Prison in northern Israel.
Radwan Qatanani told CPJ after his release that he was subjected to beatings and stress position torture while in detention. He also noted that he lost approximately 30 kilograms (66 pounds) during his period of imprisonment, as a direct result of the Israeli policy of deliberate starvation implemented within its prisons and detention centers.
Qatanani was detained as part of the mass arrests Israeli forces conducted in the occupied West Bank in the wake of October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, prompting Israel to declare war on the militant group.
Qatanani 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.”
CPJ previously emailed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israel’s Security Agency, also known as Shin Bet, and the IPS in late 2024 for comment on the cases of imprisoned Palestinian journalists but received no response.
Qatanani had been arrested by Israeli forces in the past. On July 18, 2017, he was arrested in the Askar Refugee Camp, according to Arabi 21, his employer at the time, and SKeyes. He spent 20 months in administrative detention and was released in February 2019, according to news reports.