Jerusalem: Israeli forces have detained sixteen Palestinian journalists and media workers in its prison, according to an Arab human rights group on Sunday.
This came in a report released by the Beirut-based Journalists Support Committee on the occasion of Palestinian Prisoner’s Day, which falls on April 17 of each year.
Palestinians first began marking Prisoner’s Day in 1974, when the Palestinian National Council adopted April 17 as a national and international day on which to show solidarity with Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails.
According to reports, out of the total number of detained journalists, eight of them have been sentenced to high actual sentences, four are administratively detained, and four others are held under interrogation.
The committee called on the international and human rights institutions to pressure the release of the detained journalists and to intervene to stop the policy of arresting journalists.
Overnight raids by the Israeli forces are an almost daily practice in the occupied West Bank. Since January 2022, Israel has arrested more than 2,140 Palestinians.
As of April 10, 2022, 4,450 Palestinians were being held in prison by Israel. 32 are of them are women, 160 are children, 530 are administrative detainees, 549 are serving life sentences, and 499 are serving a sentence of more than 20 years.
Palestinians mark prisoner’s day
Several demonstrations were held across the occupied Palestinian territories to mark Palestinian Prisoner’s Day.
