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, according to news reports and the Beirut-based press freedom group SKeyes. They handcuffed and blindfolded her, confiscated her laptop and cell phone, and took her to Damon Prison, near the northern Israeli city of Haifa, 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. Hassanein was ultimately released on January 19, 2025, after 10 months in detention.
On April 3, 2024, 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 her since-suspended X account and on 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 settlers circulated on social media groups calling for her arrest as part of an incitement campaign against her.
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.
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.
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’s family campaigned for her release, saying that her health had deteriorated as a result of poor prison conditions. According to Brejah, Israeli authorities did not allow her to access treatment for high blood pressure and kidney disease.
After her release, Hassanein told CPJ: "The Israeli occupation army arrested me from my home in the village of Al-Masara on Tuesday, after raiding and searching the house, handcuffing my hands, and blindfolding me. They then transported me to the Etzion military base, where I was held in a harsh detention cell for several hours. Afterward, I underwent a four-hour interrogation that focused primarily on my work as a journalist and my posts on social media."
She continued: "During the interrogation, I was seated on a chair with my hands bound behind my back and fastened to the chair's frame; the position was extremely painful. They also removed some of my clothing despite the freezing temperatures. Furthermore, I was threatened with being deprived of my daughter — who was an infant at the time and suffered from complex health issues due to being born prematurely — and they told me that I could face up to two years in prison."
Hassanein confirmed that she was subjected to full-body strip searches on multiple occasions throughout her detention, right up until the moment of her release. She also reported experiencing both collective and individual punitive measures, a complete lack of contact with the outside world, and poor food and detention conditions. She added: "Lawyers were not permitted to visit us, and we were kept completely isolated from the rest of the world."
Hassanein further noted that her lawyer was unable to ascertain her place of detention until five days after her arrest, at which point she was transferred to Damon Prison in Haifa. According to her account, she was subjected to physical beatings, insults, and verbal abuse. Upon being released, Hassanein reported being threatened not to speak about the conditions of her detention, or that her release was part of a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, and that doing so could be used as a pretext to re-arrest her at any time.
Hassanein 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, 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.