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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has urged Israel to release 16 Palestinian journalists who were, according to the organisation, arbitrarily arrested during the past two years in the Gaza Strip.
RSF stated that Israel released only three of them as part of the recent ceasefire agreement.
The organisation explained that the three journalists who were freed — Journalists Alaa al-Sarraj, Emad Zakaria Badr al-Ifranj, and Shady Abu Sedo — were among 1,968 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel on 13 October as part of the first stage of a hostage and prisoner exchange deal with Hamas.
RSF confirmed that 16 other journalists, who were arrested in Gaza and the West Bank over the last two years, remain in detention. It stressed the need for their immediate and unconditional release.
Martin Roux, Head of the RSF Crisis Desk, said that both the journalists who were released and those still detained “should ever have been illegally abducted by Israeli forces.”
He also condemned what he described as “the inhuman and degrading treatment” of these news professionals by Israeli prison authorities.
He added that such treatment could amount to torture if proven.
READ: Israeli court extends detention of Gaza hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya for 6 months
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
