On March 19, 2024, Israeli military forces arrested Rula Hassanein, a Palestinian freelance journalist and an editor for the Ramallah-based Wattan Media Network, without explanation, at her home in the Al-Ma’asra neighborhood in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, handcuffed and blindfolded her, confiscated her laptop and cell phone, and took her to Damon prison, near the northern Israeli city of Haifa, according to news reports and the Beirut-based press freedom group SKeyes. She was held on charges of incitement on social media and supporting a hostile organization banned under Israeli law, according to the Palestinian press freedom group MADA and court documents reviewed by CPJ.
On April 3, the Israeli Judea military court in the West Bank postponed her hearing for the third time, refused to grant her bail, and rejected her lawyer’s request that she be released to look after her ailing baby, according to news reports and MADA.
In her posts, which include retweets, on X and Facebook between August 2022 and December 2023, Hassanein commented on the Israel-Gaza war, including her frustration over the suffering of Palestinians. She also commented on events in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including the shooting of two Israelis in the northern town of Hawara in August 2023 and the killing of an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint in East Jerusalem in October 2022.
On October 10, 2023, Hassanein retweeted a post on X showing a photograph of her in a sniper’s crosshairs with Hebrew text describing her as a Hamas Nazi journalist living in Ramallah, which she said Israeli setters circulated on social media groups calling for her arrest as part of an incitement campaign against her.
In October 2024, Shadi Brejah, Hassanein’s husband, told CPJ via messaging app that an Israeli military court had ordered the release of his wife in July, but the prosecutor had appealed the decision.
Hassanein’s family is campaigning for her release, saying that her health has deteriorated as a result of poor prison conditions. According to Brejah, Israeli authorities are not allowing her to access treatment for high blood pressure and kidney disease.
On December 12, 2024, Hassanein was sentenced to 11 months in prison and a fine of 5,000 Israeli shekels (US$1,391), according to news reports.
Hassanein 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.
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.