Palestinian journalist Alaa Al-Rimawi was released this week after being locked up in Israeli occupation jails for the past two years. He was imprisoned under Israeli administrative detention, meaning his detention was based on secret evidence, and he was held without charges or trial.

Al-Rimawi has been recognised for his investigative reporting on Israeli policies and the challenges facing journalists under occupation. He is also manager of the J-Media Network. The news agency sells video content to media outlets, and is a prominent voice in the occupied West Bank. Al-Rimawi has worked relentlessly to expose the occupation’s abuses, often at severe personal risk. Over the span of his career, he has cumulatively spent almost a decade behind bars.

Unprecedented targeting of Palestinian journalists

He was arrested, likely because of his social media posts, in October 2023, a time in which, according to Palestinian press freedom organisation MADA, Israeli occupation forces were carrying out an unprecedented number of serious crimes and violations against Palestinian journalists and press freedoms in Palestine.

The Israeli occupation forces raided his home in Ramallah while he was undergoing medical examinations at a hospital and detained his son, whose arrest they used to pressure Al-Rimawi to turn himself in.

For two years, Al-Rimawi endured medical neglect, repeated assaults, and physical and mental torture. His detention was part of a broader campaign targeting Palestinian journalists, often holding them for extended periods without formal charges or trial.

Al-Rimawi’s experience reflects the ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression in the occupied territories, where journalists work under constant threat of violence or imprisonment. This assault on media workers by the Israeli occupation is part of a strategy to suppress independent reporting and documentation of human rights violations.

Al-Rimawi’s liberation has been welcomed by human rights groups, and the Palestinian community. He has decided to continue his work as a journalist, saying in a statement to Palestinian media:

The freedom of our journalists is essential for the truth to reach the world. The occupation cannot silence the voice of our people.

Targeting freedom of the press

Struggles for press freedom in the West Bank and Gaza are ongoing, with 55 Palestinian journalists still imprisoned and suffering the same conditions Al-Rimawi was forced to endure. 21 of that group are also held under administrative detention. According to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, nearly one-third of the approximately 11,100 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody are held under administrative detention.

Figures from the Government Media Office in Gaza show that 254 Palestinian journalists have been killed by the occupation and 433 journalists injured in the two years up until October 7, 2025.

As the Israeli regime aims to erase the culture, history, and future lives of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, reporting is not only a profession for journalists in the occupied territory, but an essential act of resistance and survival.

Featured image via the Canary

By Charlie Jaay

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