On March 18, 2024, Israeli security forces arrested Walid Zayed, a reporter and editor for the Qatari-funded broadcaster Al Jazeera Mubasher, at his West Bank home in Ramallah’s Al-Masayef neighborhood, searched and vandalized the house, seized his computer, his personal cell phone, SIM cards, and journalism equipment, without giving a reason for his arrest, according to news reports and the Beirut-based regional press freedom group SKeyes. Israeli authorities released Zayed on January 16, 2025, after 10 months in detention.
Zayed told CPJ that conditions were difficult both during his detention at the Israeli military center in Huwara and during daily crackdowns in Ofer Prison, which included beatings, nighttime raids on rooms, the confiscation of mattresses and blankets, handcuffing, and being kept in the yard during sudden raids.
He said the charge against him was incitement via social media, and that Israeli authorities compiled a file containing images from all of his social media posts. He added that throughout his detention he met a lawyer only in court and for only a few seconds. He said he did not know where he was being held during the first hours of his detention and learned his location from other prisoners.
Zayed said he was strip-searched several times by prison guards and lost 15 kilograms (33 pounds) because detainees were not given enough food.
He added officers warned him not to publish or engage on social media, and that he had been given a one-year suspended sentence enforceable over five years.
Zayed 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 IDF, the Israel’s Security Agency, also known as Shin Bet, and the ISP in late 2024 for comment on the cases of imprisoned Palestinian journalists but received no response.