Al-Saadi is being held in administrative detention at Megiddo, a prison known for abuse

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS, DROP SITE NEWS, SEP 24, 2024

This month, we published a dispatch from Palestinian journalist Mujahed al-Saadi documenting the IDF’s siege of hospitals in Jenin. On Thursday, al-Saadi was violently dragged from his home and remains in Israeli captivity.

At around 2:30 a.m. on September 19, several Israeli military vehicles surrounded the home of Mujahed al-Saadi, a well-known Palestinian journalist in the West Bank.

Members of an Israeli special forces unit broke down his door and stormed inside, according to Mujahed’s brother, Hamadah. Using the butts of their M16 rifles and their bare fists, they beat the barefoot al-Saadi in his face and chest. Al-Saadi’s wife, three young children, and father also reside in the house. When his wife tried to hand him his shoes, the soldiers beat her as well, according to his colleague in Jenin who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for their safety.

The Israeli soldiers then took Mujahed to Jalameh prison to interrogate him before transferring him to Megiddo, a prison notorious for abuse and mistreatment of prisoners. At least four detainees have died inside the prison since October as a result of severe beatings by prison guards or medical neglect.

Since al-Saadi’s arrest on Thursday, he has had no contact with family members or his lawyer. Hamadah said he is being held in administrative detention, a policy under which prisoners can be held without charge indefinitely.

The Israeli military did not provide a response in time for publication.

A veteran journalist based in Jenin, al-Saadi has covered the region since 2012. He reported a story for Drop Site News earlier this month on Israeli forces laying siege to hospitals in Jenin during its invasion of the city and refugee camp. In the course of his reporting, he and a group of colleagues came under fire from Israeli troops, who proceeded to charge at them at high speeds with bulldozers. On May 11, 2022, al-Saadi was reporting on the aftermath of an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp. He was standing only a few feet from Shireen Abu Akleh, the renowned Al Jazeera journalist, when an Israeli sniper murdered her. (You can watch al-Saadi’s account of that day in the Fault Lines documentary, “The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh”).

Since October 7, Israel has arrested an unprecedented 51 journalists and media workers in the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Israel continues to hold at least 14 of those journalists under administrative detention.

“Israel has been arresting Palestinian journalists in record numbers and using administrative detention to keep them behind bars, thus depriving the region not only of much needed information, but also of Palestinian voices on the conflict,” CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna said in a statement.

On Sunday—three days after al-Saadi’s arrest—armed Israeli soldiers raided Al Jazeera’s bureau in Ramallah and ordered the network to shut down operations for 45 days. Walid al-Omari, Al Jazeera’s West Bank bureau chief, said the Israeli military’s closure order accused the network of “incitement to and support of terrorism” without providing evidence. The network later aired footage of Israel troops tearing down a banner of Shireen Abu Akleh on a balcony used by the Al Jazeera office.

In Gaza, the Israeli military has killed over 160 journalists, over the past year, making it the deadliest place in the world for journalists in living memory.

Mariam Barghouti contributed reporting.