On October 8, 2025, Israeli authorities arrested Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam while he was sailing aboard the Wijdan (Conscience), a vessel that was part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), one of several aid convoys that have attempted to break the blockade on Gaza. He was released and deported from Israel on October 10.
Alam, who is director of the Dhaka-based independent media organization Drik, told Anadolu agency that Israeli forces “made loud noises, shouted [at the detainees] to stand up or give other orders and tried to create panic. One of our fellow humanitarians was also threatened with being shot, claiming to be a Hamas supporter.”
“When we got off the ship, we were taken with our hands tied behind our backs and we were made to kneel down in a cell where the Israeli force members just urinated,” on the floor, said Alam. “The worst thing for me was that they took my passport and threw it on the ground repeatedly. It was a big blow for me.”
The Adalah Center — a legal advocacy group for Arab minority rights in Israel that is representing the detained journalists and activists — told CPJ that Israeli authorities “treated the journalists accompanying the flotilla no differently than they treated the activists,” even though the press were there to report on the voyage.
Adalah said that at Ashdod Port, “the authorities issued arrest and long-term entry ban orders against several journalists,” calling the actions “a serious and unlawful infringement on their right to work and a restriction on their ability to cover events in the region.”