RSF - Reporters sans frontières
RSF - Reporters sans frontières
10/16/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/16/2025 06:34
Palestine: Israel releases only three of 19 journalists arbitrarily detained in two years
Journalists Alaa al-Sarraj, Emad Zakaria Badr al-Ifranj, and Shady Abu Sedo, arbitrarily arrested by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, were released on 13 October as part of the ceasefire. However, 16 journalists arrested over the past two years in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank remain in detention. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) demands their immediate and unconditional release.
Three journalists were among the 1,968 Palestinian prisoners (the vast majority of whom were held without charge, indictment, or trial) released by Israel on 13 October as part of the ceasefire agreement, which involved a hostage and prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas during its crucial initial phase.
Alaa al-Sarraj, cameraman for the Palestinian Alraypublic news agency, endured the longest detention of the three released journalists, which lasted over a year and ten months. According to RSF information, he was held in the prison in Ketziot-Al Naqab. He was arrested for his work by Israeli forces on 1 December 2023 in southern Gaza City as he was being forcibly displaced from the north to the south of the besieged Palestinian territory.
Emad Zakaria Badr al-Ifranjiand Shady Abu Sedo, arrested on 19 March 2024 in Gaza City, spent a year and six months in Israeli jails. Fifty-five-year-old Emad Zakaria Badr al-Ifranji, director of the online news website Watan, was arrested by Israeli forces at his home near Al-Shifa Hospital. The second, a journalist for the television channel Palestine Today, was arrested while reporting from the same hospital.
Emad Zakaria Badr al-Ifranji and Shady Abu Sedo have since appeared in videos broadcast on social media and by Arabic-language news channels, such as Al-Jazeeraand Palestine Today,with extremely emaciated faces, denouncing the inhuman and degrading acts, which they described as "torture," inflicted by their Israeli captors.
"RSF demands the immediate and unconditional release of all Palestinian journalists arbitrarily detained by Israel. Neither the recently released journalists nor those still detained should ever have been illegally abducted by Israeli forces. RSF condemns the inhuman and degrading treatment of these news professionals by Israeli prison authorities, as reported by the three released journalists. These acts, if proven, amount to torture.
Martin Roux
Head of the RSF Crisis Desk
Twenty-one Palestinian journalists still held by Israeli authorities, including 16 kidnapped after 7 October 2023
Israeli arrests of Palestinian journalists have surged over the past two years, both in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as Israel waged its devastating military offensive in Gaza. According to RSF data, five Palestinian media professionals were arbitrarily imprisoned before 7 October 2023 and twenty were imprisoned after that date. Among them, journalist Baha al-Ghoul, arrested by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip on 16 November 2023, was released on 28 February 2025 from the Ketziot-Al-Naqab prison.
Sixteen of the Palestinian journalists arrested following 7 October 2023 remain in detention. In total, 21 remain arbitrarily detained by Israel.
MIDDLE EAST - NORTH AFRICA
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112/ 180
Score : 51.055
Published on16.10.2025
- MIDDLE EAST - NORTH AFRICA
- Arbitrary detention and proceedings
- Violence against journalists
- News
- Torture
- Abduction
- Arbitrary detention
- Imprisonment
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