The Journalists' Syndicate Appeals for the Rescue of Journalist Ali Al-Samoudi from Administrative Detention That Threatens His Life

SadaNews - The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate has appealed to international human rights and union organizations to save the life of imprisoned journalist Ali Al-Samoudi, strongly condemning the Israeli occupation authorities' continued targeting of our colleague Ali Al-Samoudi (58 years old), a reporter for Al-Quds newspaper and a producer working with Al Jazeera Network, who is facing dire conditions inside the detention center that threaten his life.

The statement warns of the dangerous conditions accompanying Al-Samoudi's detention, according to his lawyer, including physical and psychological torture, along with severe weight loss.

The statement from the Freedoms Committee of the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate indicated that the committee has monitored and documented many incidents of systematic targeting of colleague Al-Samoudi over the years, resulting in injuries, arrests, and repeated assaults aimed at silencing his voice and preventing him from fulfilling his professional duty in conveying the truth.

A long record of injuries

The statement reviewed some serious incidents, where colleague Al-Samoudi suffered multiple injuries during his journalistic career in the Jenin Governorate in the northern West Bank. Data indicates that he has been injured about 11 times, some of which were severe, and his body retained remnants of bullets and shrapnel that still leave a significant health impact on him.

The most notable of those injuries occurred on May 11, 2022, when he was shot directly in the back while covering a news story alongside the late journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during an incursion into the Jenin camp, at the same moments that the occupation forces committed the crime of her assassination.

Repeated injuries, arrests, and a policy of silencing voices

The statement listed several incidents, including:

April 24, 2004: Al-Samoudi was shot in the face.

January 3, 2013: He suffered from suffocation and fainting due to the Israeli soldiers throwing a toxic explosive bomb.

October 10 and 16, 2015: He suffered from suffocation and fainting due to the thick clouds of tear gas launched at Palestinian protesters at the Jalama checkpoint north of Jenin.

In 2018, Reuters abruptly and arbitrarily dismissed him and refused to compensate him or grant him any of his rights.

At the end of January 2025, he was detained in the vicinity of the Jenin camp and was threatened, and his phone was confiscated.

April 29, 2025: The occupation forces raided his home in the Al-Zahra neighborhood of Jenin, arrested him after searching and vandalizing the contents of the house, and prevented him from taking his medications despite suffering from chronic illnesses (diabetes, high blood pressure, and stomach ulcers).

He was transferred over 72 hours between detention centers, interrogation facilities, and prisons under harsh conditions and was subjected to physical and psychological abuse.

May 8, 2025: The occupation authorities transferred him to administrative detention for six months without any charges, in a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.

Severe health risks

The Journalists' Syndicate warns of the deterioration of colleague Al-Samoudi's health due to the deliberate medical neglect policy inside the occupation prisons, where he suffers from chronic diseases and is deprived of necessary treatment, in addition to the effects of previous injuries that left bullet shrapnel in his body, as well as deprivation of food and detention in harsh conditions that led to severe weight loss and worsening vision problems.

The syndicate holds the occupation accountable

The Journalists' Syndicate holds the occupation government fully responsible for the life of colleague Ali Al-Samoudi and asserts that what he is experiencing is not an isolated case, but part of a systematic Israeli policy targeting Palestinian journalists with killing, injury, and detention, aimed at silencing free voices and suppressing the truth.

The syndicate mentions that colleague Al-Samoudi is the main witness in the assassination of colleague Shireen Abu Akleh in the case presented by the Journalists' Syndicate and the family of the martyr to the International Criminal Court and he had previously been part of a journalists' syndicate delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva at the end of 2022 where he testified before it.

The statement noted the arrest of about 150 journalists since October 2023, of whom about 50 remain detained, most of them in arbitrary administrative detention.

The syndicate demands the following:

1. The immediate and unconditional release of colleague Ali Al-Samoudi.

2. The international community and the International Federation of Journalists to intervene to provide urgent protection for Palestinian journalists.

3. Holding the occupation authorities accountable in international courts for their crimes against journalism and freedom of expression.