On June 2, 2024, Israeli security forces detained Rasha Hirzallah, a reporter for the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency WAFA, after she was summoned for questioning to the police station at Ariel, an Israeli settlement about 17 miles south of the West Bank city of Nablus, according to news reports, and Hirzallah’s brother Osama Hirzallah, who spoke to CPJ.
On her social media accounts on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram, Hirzallah prominently features her brother Mohammed Hirzallah, who died in November 2022 after being shot in the head during clashes with Israeli security forces in July that year.
On November 17, an Israeli military court sentenced Hirzallah to six months in prison for incitement on social media and fined her 5,000 shekels ($US1,390).
According to WAFA, the journalist is held in Damon prison in northern Israel. CPJ was unable to determine the status of her health in custody.
Hirzallah was arrested in the course of Israel’s recent military operations in the region, which began after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Israel has killed scores of journalists in Gaza as well as six in Lebanon, jailed dozens of Palestinian journalists from the West Bank and Gaza, and destroyed much of the press infrastructure in Gaza, all while preventing the foreign press from entering Gaza.
Hirzallah was subsequently released on December 1, after completing the six-month sentence. She appears in CPJ's count of journalists jailed on December 1, 2024, because she was released after midnight on that date.
CPJ emailed the Israel Defense Forces, Israel’s 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.