Sabri Jibril, a reporter for the West Bank-based J-Media agency, was arrested by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on October 14, 2023 and later placed in administrative detention. After his arrest, Israel banned J-Media on security grounds.
Around 25 IDF soldiers raided Jibril’s home in Tuqu’, southeast of Bethlehem, for 20 minutes in the early hours before taking Jibril away in a military vehicle, according to the Palestinian press freedom group MADA, citing an interview with Jibril’s brother. J-Media also reported the arrest on Facebook.
Jibril’s brother, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, told CPJ that family members believe that the journalist was arrested for his social media commentary on the Israel-Gaza war, though they did not specify what comments.
In the days prior to his arrest, Jibril posted commentary on his Facebook page about the war, including a video of the funeral of a person allegedly deported from Bethlehem to the Gaza Strip, pictures of journalists Mohammed Sobh and Saeed al-Taweel, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, and a photo of Jibril’s dead cousin. Jibril’s reporting in the weeks before he was arrested include human interest stories, local news, coverage of protests against Israeli settlers south of Bethlehem, and reports on alleged attempts by Israeli settlers to take over Palestinian areas by erecting tents.
According to an October 26 Facebook post by the official Commission of Detainees Affairs and Jibril’s brother, Jibril was placed in administrative detention, initially in Megiddo prison.
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.
A day after his arrest, the IDF ordered the J-Media agency to shut down, according to the Palestinian press freedom group MADA and the London-based news website The New Arab. In a statement, the IDF described the media outlet as “an illegal organization” and said its closure was necessary for “the sake of the security of the State of Israel and for the safety of the public and public order,” those sources said, adding that J-Media complied and ceased operations.
In September 2024, Jibril’s brother told CPJ via messaging app that the journalist was now in southern Israel’s Ramon prison and that his administrative detention had been extended multiple times. He added that Jibril’s family had not been allowed to visit him and had no information about his health condition.
Jibril 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 November 2021, Jibril was briefly arrested by Israeli forces and held for questioning for several hours about posts on his personal Facebook page that Israeli officials alleged contained inciting material, Jibril told Beirut-based press freedom group SKeyes.
“The interrogating officer reviewed the news about Jerusalem that I published on my private Facebook page, namely what it’s happening in the city in terms of attacks, violations, and casualties resulting from Israeli attacks,” Jibril said in November 2021. The investigating officer ended the questioning by threatening him with harsher punishment if he was caught again.
CPJ emailed the IDF, 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.