Israeli Occupation Places Palestinian Journalist Ali Samoudi Under 6-Month Detention Without Trial or Charge


May 8, 2025

Commission of Detainees’ Affairs & The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society 

Ramallah, occupied Palestine – The Israeli occupation’s intelligence services have issued a six-month “administrative detention” order against veteran Palestinian journalist 58-year-old Ali al-Samoudi from Jenin city, without trial or charge. 

The Commission and the PPS stated that journalist Samoudi was subjected to mistreatment following his arrest on April 29, where he was initially held in a military barracks in Jenin, then transferred to al-Jalama detention center, and later moved to Megiddo prison, where he is currently held.

Palestinian prisoner groups hold the occupation responsible for Samoudi’s life and wellbeing, given his numerous health problems and prior work-related injuries, particularly in light of his detention at Israel’s Megiddo prison, a facility known for systematic denial of medical care and other systematic abuses, which have been central causes in the killings of numerous detainees.

Samoudi has sustained 11 injuries by the Israeli army during his decades-long work as a journalist, including during the killing of slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022, with shrapnel still embedded in his body. He also sustained a heart attack in recent months. 

This brings the total number of Palestinian journalists currently held by the Israeli occupation to 56 people, including 20 under administrative detention without trial or charge, the vast majority of them arrested following the start of the genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip. 

Prisoner groups emphasize that al-Samoudi's arrest and administrative detention come amid a continued escalation in the occupation's targeting of journalists—particularly through the systematic use of administrative detention, a policy that has spiked at an unprecedented rate since the genocide. Other arrests are carried out under allegations of so-called “incitement.”