A Prominent Palestinian Journalist Still Held in Administrative Detention Without Clear Evidence
Respected Palestinian journalist Ali Samoudi, who was wounded in the 2022 attack that killed his colleague Shireen Abu Akleh, was arrested on April 29 in the West Bank by the Israeli army. Now held in administrative detention without clear evidence, his case is another example of the targeting of Palestinian journalists—a practice already exposed in the Gaza Project coordinated by Forbidden Stories.
By Youssr Youssef with Frédéric Métézeau
June, 2nd 2024
This article was translated with the assistance of AI. The translation was subsequently reviewed, completed, and refined by our editorial team.
“He was always on the ground—that must be what annoyed them,” said Nasser Abu Bakr, president of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), as he tried to explain the reasons behind the arrest of Ali Samoudi in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, on April 29. Abu Bakr claims he has known Samoudi for at least thirty years and describes him as “one of the best journalists in Jenin.”
“The occupation forces raided our home around 5 a.m., with 20 to 25 soldiers present,” recounted Mohamed, one of Samoudi’s sons, speaking to RFI. “They searched the house and partially ransacked it. My father was interrogated for about 30 minutes, and then they took him to an unknown location.” After several days without news, the family finally learned that he had been placed in administrative detention. This procedure, renewable with no time limit, allows Israeli authorities to imprison a person without charge or trial, often based on “secret evidence.”
Ali Samoudi in Jenin (West Bank), at the site where Shireen Abu Akleh was killed, November 2022 (Credit: Frédéric Métézeau / Forbidden Stories)
A well-known reporter recognized by his peers, Samoudi has tirelessly covered events in Jenin, notably the 2002 Israeli offensive against the city’s refugee camp—a pivotal episode of the second intifada. He has worked for CNN, Reuters, Al Jazeera, and the Palestinian daily newspaper Al Quds. Wounded multiple times over the years while reporting, his most serious injury came on May 11, 2022, in Jenin, when he was shot alongside his colleague Shireen Abu Akleh, with whom he regularly teamed up. Abu Akleh, one of Al Jazeera’s most prominent reporters, was killed in that attack—a killing that became emblematic of the targeting of Palestinian journalists.
A journalist labeled a “security threat”
Samoudi’s incarceration follows a recurring pattern previously described in the Gaza Project: the indictment of Palestinian journalists for alleged terrorist activity or complicity, without credible evidence.
According to the BBC, the army suspects the journalist of belonging to Islamic Jihad, without providing any supporting material. When contacted by Forbidden Stories, the army stated that “The suspect was apprehended based on intelligence indicating involvement in organizational activity and actions endangering regional security.” It added that “As sufficiant evidence was not found against him, and in light of the accumulated intelligence material, security authorities requested to consider issuing an administrative detention order” scheduled to run until October 28.
Lacking “evidence”, what exactly are the “intelligence reports” held by the Israeli army? Forbidden Stories reviewed another element in the file compiled against the journalist: an interrogation on June 21, 2022, of an 18-year-old Palestinian accused of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. The young man claimed he had heard that Samoudi had filmed a shooting carried out by a presumed member of a Palestinian paramilitary group against Israeli soldiers in the West Bank—and then deleted the video at the request of another Palestinian activist.
According to the journalist’s lawyer, Jamil Al Khatib, the young man’s testimony is “old,” based only on hearsay, and insufficient to establish a link between Samoudi and an armed group. “According to [the Israeli army], if you delete this kind of video showing a shooting by a fighter, then you’re involved, you’re a partner!” he told Forbidden Stories. “But they have no reliable testimony. So instead of charging him in a criminal procedure, they place him in administrative detention.”
For Abu Bakr from the PJS, the accusation against Samoudi is incomprehensible. “If they know he is part of Islamic Jihad, they can trial him—without putting him in administrative detention,” he said.
Another of Samoudi’s sons, Majd, believes the explanation is straightforward. “They want to silence him … And he’s not the only one,” he said. According to several Palestinian prisoner support organizations, his arrest brings to 20 the number of journalists currently held in administrative detention, out of a total of 50 imprisoned by Israel since the start of the war in Gaza.
Aged 58, diabetic, and suffering from high blood pressure, Samoudi is now incarcerated at Megiddo prison in northern Israel. His lawyer told Forbidden Stories that Samoudi has still not received his medications, and that food is lacking in prison. The Israeli Prison Service did not respond to our questions.
The risks of being a journalist in the West Bank
Overshadowed by the war in Gaza—where 180 journalists have been killed since October 7, 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists—the situation in the West Bank is deteriorating, especially in Jenin. In January 2025, Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich, responsible for the administration of settlements, publicly stated, “Jenin [should] look like Jabalya,” referring to the city in the Gaza strip now in ruins. According to several UN agencies, the Jenin refugee camp has since become “a ghost town,” with nearly 20,000 residents forcibly displaced.
The first part of the Gaza Project by Forbidden Stories revealed the violence carried out by Israeli settlers against Palestinian journalists, as well as the targeting of reporters by the Israeli army in the West Bank. Among them is Ameed Shahade, who testifies again today, “The situation [in Jenin] is getting worse every day. At first, we could approach the edge of the camp. Now, if we get close, we risk losing our lives.”
On May 28, warning shots were fired over an RFI/France 24 team’s car in Jenin’s Al Sharqiya neighborhood. “We were with Palestinian journalist Mohamed Mansour because, through his case, we wanted to illustrate the difficulty of being a journalist in the occupied West Bank,” Amira Souilem told Forbidden Stories. The RFI/France 24 correspondent—part of the Gaza Project—added that “in the front seat, Mohamed and our Palestinian cameraman were wearing their bulletproof vests with the ‘Press’ logo. The car was also marked, and at that moment, the cameraman was filming. Everything indicated that we were a team of journalists.” After this, they had to turn back.
The Israeli army told us “it has never and will never target journalists as such.” But Shahade questions this. “In an environment where children and civilians are being killed by the bullets of the occupation army, how can journalists be protected?”, he asked.
In June 2024, Issam Rimawi, another West Bank reporter, told the Gaza Project, “I’ve lost [hope of getting] justice after our colleague [Abu Akleh’s] death … The whole world stood with her, talked about her. There was no October 7, there was nothing. And what came of it?” The killing of Abu Akleh remains unpunished to this day, despite an Israeli army investigation concluding she was likely killed by an “accidental shot” fired by an Israeli soldier.
Three years later, journalists revealed the identity of the presumed killer in a documentary: a 20-year-old soldier who was himself killed in an explosion in Jenin in 2024. In the film, Samoudi explains, “That bullet was meant to prevent Palestinian media from documenting and exposing the crimes of the occupation.” By placing him in administrative detention, the Israeli army appears to have found another way to obstruct his journalistic work.