Jerusalem
CNN
—
Israeli forces detained prominent Palestinian journalist Ali Samoudi in an early morning raid on his son’s home in the occupied West Bank.
The raid occurred in the city of Jenin, where Samoudi’s son told CNN the Israeli military came in at 5 a.m. and took the 58-year-old journalist to an undisclosed location.
Samoudi “underwent a field interrogation” by Israeli forces for 30 minutes, Mohammad Samoudi told CNN, saying they had searched the house and destroyed some of its contents.
In addition to writing for the Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper, Samoudi routinely worked with international news outlets, including CNN, Al-Jazeera, Reuters, and others.
In May 2022, Samoudi was working near the entrance to the Jenin refugee camp when Israeli forces shot and killed Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Samoudi was shot and injured in the gunfire.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned the raid and Samoudi’s arrest.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Samoudi was “identified with the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization” and suspect of transferring funds to the group, but did not provide any evidence to support its claim.
One of the most well-known Palestinian journalists in the West Bank, Samoudi has worked with international news organizations for decades as a local producer and fixer. In his long career as a journalist, he had never previously faced such an accusation, including when he became a witness to the high-profile killing of his colleague, Abu Akleh.
The IDF said Samoudi has been transferred to Israeli security forces “for further treatment.”
Samoudi is the latest of dozens Palestinian journalists to be arrested by Israeli forces over the past 18 months. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Israel has arrested at least 84 journalists in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.
