On November 18, 2024, Israeli forces arrested Palestinian journalist Tawfiq AlsayedSaleem, while he was fleeing with his family from Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, towards Gaza City, according to the Beirut-based press freedom group SKeyes and his son, AlaaAldeen Tawfiq AlsayedSaleem, who spoke to CPJ.
AlsayedSaleem, age 48, is a member of the board of directors of Al-Istiqlal newspaper and editorial director of its website. AlaaAldeen Tawfiq AlsayedSaleem told CPJ that his father was against leaving Beit Lahia, but eventually agreed to leave with about 70 family members “after the great pressure and the destruction of homes over the heads of their residents,” and fears “that the occupation would bomb the house while we were inside.”
Soldiers at the Israeli military checkpoint separating the northern Gaza Strip from Gaza City split the group, allowing the women and children through but keeping the men at the checkpoint, the son said. “They treated us badly, insulted us and mocked us, and made us take off all our clothes except our underwear,” he said, adding that the soldiers ordered them to throw all of their personal belongings under military tanks, so they would be crushed.
The soldiers released AlaaAldeen Tawfiq AlsayedSaleem around 5 p.m. and his brother about an hour later, he said. “But they kept my father detained even though he entered for investigation before us, and they arrested a number of relatives with him,” he said, adding the other family members who were released fled towards Gaza City.
CPJ was unable to determine where the journalist is being held, whether he is facing charges, or the status of his health in custody.
Alaa Skafi, director of Palestinian prisoner support group Addameer, told CPJ that journalists from Gaza are generally held under the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law. According to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, the law allows Israel to hold detainees for long periods of time without charge and with limited access to legal counsel. Skafi and B’Tselem both described overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and abuse at Israeli prison facilities housing Palestinian journalists.
Israel's recent military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, which began after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, have devastated the local press. Israel has killed scores of journalists in Gaza as well as six in Lebanon, jailed dozens of Palestinian journalists from Gaza and the West Bank, and destroyed much of the press infrastructure in Gaza, all while preventing the foreign press from entering Gaza.
CPJ emailed the Israel Defense Forces for information about the charges, health, accusations, and sentence against AlsayedSaleem, in addition to information about the journalist’s access to his family and to legal representation, but didn’t receive a response.