Imprisoned Palestinian Journalist Mujahed al-Saadi's Detention Extended by Four Months
Prominent Jenin-based journalist Mujahed al-Saadi has been in administrative detention without charge or trial since his violent arrest by Israeli forces in September.
Imprisoned Palestinian journalist and Drop Site contributor Mujahed al-Saadi was recently sentenced to an additional four months behind bars.
Al-Saadi was arrested on September 19 from his home in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, where he lives with his wife and three young children. An Israeli special forces unit broke down his door and beat him before hauling him away. (You can read more about the details of his arrest here.)
He was subsequently sentenced to six months in administrative detention, a mechanism used by Israeli authorities to detain Palestinians for months or years without charge or trial or the possibility of appeal.
Several days before his initial six-month prison term was scheduled to end last month, Israeli authorities extended his prison term by an additional four months, according to his colleague in Jenin. Al-Saadi will now remain behind bars until at least the end of July.
After being held at Megiddo prison, not far from Jenin, al-Saadi was transferred to Al-Naqab prison in the desert of southern Israel. Like other Israeli detention facilities, both Megiddo and Al-Naqab are notorious for abuse and mistreatment of prisoners. A report by the Palestinian human rights group al-Mezan on Al-Naqab prison documented “widespread and systematic use of physical and psychological torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment, medical neglect, and starvation policies.”
A veteran journalist based in Jenin, al-Saadi has covered the region since 2012. He reported a story for Drop Site News in September 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, 2023, Israeli authorities have arrested an unprecedented number of journalists and media workers in Palestine, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Nearly 90 journalists have been arrested over the past 18 months, with at least 35 of them still in detention.
Israel has killed over 210 Palestinian journalists in Gaza, making it the deadliest place in the world for journalists in living memory.
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