RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank—Palestinian-American journalist and Drop Site News contributor Naqaa Hamed was arrested by Israeli authorities at a checkpoint on Tuesday as she was returning from a reporting assignment in the occupied West Bank, according to her colleagues and family. She spent the night in Israeli custody and is being interrogated about her journalistic work, a lawyer who spoke to Hamed on the phone told the family.
Hamed, 38, was detained near the village of Tuqu in Bethlehem as she and two other Palestinian journalists reporting for Turkish news outlet TRT were driving back from the southern West Bank after working on a report about escalating Israeli settler attacks in Masafer Yatta.
“It was three female soldiers who ushered our car to stop,” Wisam Karam, a cameraperson on assignment for TRT who was in the car with Hamed, told Drop Site. “They demanded we hand over our identification cards and they photographed each ID as well as took our pictures.” After a short while, the soldiers ordered the team to get out of the car and follow them to a military watchtower nearby. “We were forced to sit on the ground for around 45 minutes, and in that time Naqaa was taken by the female soldiers to the side,” Karam said. When she was returned to join her colleagues on the ground, Hamed said she was questioned about her work and what stories she was working on, according to Karam. Around 15 minutes later, the soldiers asked Hamed to collect her phone and laptop and she was taken into custody. Karam and the other journalists working with them were released and told to leave the area; soldiers refused to provide any additional information on Hamed.
Hamed is a freelance journalist who has worked for various international outlets, including Drop Site News (read her reports on Israeli settler attacks and expanding settlements in the West Bank here and here). Over the past several weeks, Israeli settlers have targeted Hamed with a wave of incitement on Telegram channels and in Hebrew media following her coverage of an Israeli siege on families in the village of Qusra, according to her colleagues. Hamed is from the village of Beitin, northeast of Ramallah, holds American citizenship, and is married with three young children. Hamed’s family contacted the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem about her arrest but has yet to hear back.
Israeli news outlet Ynet cited unidentified Israeli military sources as saying Hamed is “suspected of cooperating with an enemy entity and may also be under suspicion of espionage.” The Israeli military spokesperson declined to comment when asked by Drop Site about her case and instead deferred questions to the Israeli police.
Hamed’s detention is part of an escalating wave of arrests of Palestinian journalists by Israeli authorities. Nearly 40 journalists are currently in Israeli detention, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), all of whom were arrested since the start of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza nearly three years ago. Over half the journalists behind bars are being held in administrative detention, a mechanism that allows Israeli authorities to imprison people indefinitely without charge or trial.
Last month, Israeli forces detained Palestinian journalist and Drop Site contributor Mohamed Awad, 38, from his home in Bitunia, blindfolding and handcuffing him before taking him into custody. He was later sentenced to three months in administrative detention.
“The targeting of Palestinian journalists is part of a systematic policy aimed at erasing the truth and suppressing the Palestinian narrative,” PPS said in a statement.
