‘Returned from hell’: Press monitor exposes torture of Palestinian journalists by Israel

 Watchdog exposes a 'deliberate strategy' of starvation and sexual abuse against detained Palestinian journalists in Israeli prisons

Mourners carry the body of a Palestinian journalist killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis, Gaza on 22 January (AFP/Bashar Taleb)

By Elis Gjevori

Published date: 19 February 2026 14:35 GMT | Last update: 9 hours 15 mins ago

Palestinian journalists detained by Israel have described systematic torture, sexual violence and starvation inside Israeli prisons, according to a report published on Thursday by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The report, titled ‘We returned from hell’, draws on interviews with 59 Palestinian journalists jailed since October 2023.

All but one said they endured “torture, abuse or other forms of violence”.

Testimonies detail baton beatings, electroshocks and being forced into prolonged stress positions, including being forced to stand under sewage water. Two journalists said they were raped by their Israeli captors.

Journalist Sami al-Sai recounted how soldiers stripped him and penetrated him with a baton and other objects inside a small cell at Megiddo prison, leaving him in a “severe psychological state”.

“Descriptions of sexual violence appeared repeatedly in the testimonies, with journalists describing assaults as intended to humiliate, terrorise and permanently scar them,” the report states.

Two journalists said they were raped by their Israeli captors

Others described threats against their families, sleep deprivation through the use of blaring music, and the denial of urgent medical care, including treatment for broken bones and eye injuries.

“CPJ’s reporting shows a clear pattern in how Palestinian journalists were treated in Israeli custody,” said the organisation's CEO Jodie Ginsberg.

“The scale and consistency of these testimonies point to something far beyond isolated misconduct," she added.

"When dozens of journalists independently describe physical and psychological abuse, the international community must take action."

'We will kill your family'

Journalist Amin Baraka said interrogators threatened his family because of his work with Al Jazeera.

“An Israeli soldier told me, word for word in Arabic, that Al Jazeera correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh defied us and stayed in the Gaza Strip, so we killed his family, and we will kill yours too,” he said.

Dahdouh, Al Jazeera Arabic’s Gaza bureau chief, lost his wife, daughter, son and grandson in an Israeli air strike while they sheltered in a relative’s home.

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He was later wounded in another strike that killed his colleague Samer Abudaqa.

CPJ said 80 percent of those interviewed were held under administrative detention, without charge.

One in four said they never met a lawyer and most reported suffering extreme hunger.

CPJ reviewed photographs showing “gaunt faces, protruding ribs and hollowed cheeks”.

Some detainees survived on “moldy bread and rotten food”, losing an average of 23 and a half kilograms each.

One journalist, Sami al-Sai, said soldiers targeted the site of his recent kidney surgery despite him informing them of the operation.

“We returned from hell,” Imad Ifranji told CPJ, using the term detainees used to describe a section at the notorious Israeli prison Sde Teiman.

“These are not isolated incidents,” said CPJ regional director Sara Qudah.

“They expose a deliberate strategy to intimidate and silence journalists, and destroy their ability to bear witness.”

Nearly 300 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 2023 in what has been desrcibed the deadliest place for journalists in the world. 

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