The Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera reported on Thursday that the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) security forces arrested journalist Al-Atrash, for his coverage of Israel’s brutal raid of Jenin, a city in the northern occupied West Bank.
Journalist Al-Atrash was detained from his home in the southern city of Hebron after preventing him from covering the Israeli operation in Jenin and taken to the Hebron Public Prosecution Office for interrogation. This move is considered to be an attempt to prevent the coverage of the ongoing Israeli aggression in Jenin City.
At least 12 Palestinian residents were killed and nearly 40 others injured during the ongoing Israeli onslaught on the city of Jenin and its refugee camp for the third consecutive day.
The occupation bulldozers destroyed the main street of Jenin Governmental Hospital. They closed its entrances with dirt mounds, which made it almost impossible to transport the wounded and sick people, while also imposing a tight siege on Al-Razi and Ibn Sina hospitals, according to Wafa News agency.
The committee for the defence of Journalist Mohammed Al-Atrash told Al Jazeera that all the charges against journalist Mohammed Al-Atrash have no legal basis. A defence team member for Mohammed Al-Atrash told Al Jazeera that the charges against him are not directed at journalists but at government employees.
However, Hebron Public Prosecution’s deputy refused to release Mohammed Al-Atrash, citing his connection “with a banned channel”.
Al Jazeera has demanded that the Palestinian Authority immediately release Mohammed Al-Atrash and stop targeting their journalists.
“What the security forces of the Palestinian Authority have done can only be explained as an attempt to withhold media coverage against the Israeli occupation forces’ attack on Palestinians in the city of Jenin; the refugee camp and the village. It is unfortunate that these arbitrary measures taken by the Palestinian Authority bodies are in line with targeting the Israeli occupation of Al Jazeera and its journalists,” Al Jazeera statement added.
On 1, January 2025, the Palestinian Ministerial Committee, comprising representatives from the Ministries of Culture, Interior, and Telecommunications, announced the suspension of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera Media Network’s broadcast operations in Palestine, a decision slammed by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), United Nations, and several others.
The network has condemned the decision, calling it “an attempt to dissuade the channel from covering the rapidly escalating events taking place in the occupied territory” adding that it was “in line with the Israeli occupation’s actions against its staff”.
 security forces arrested journalist Al-Atrash, for his coverage of Israel’s brutal raid of Jenin, a city in the northern occupied West Bank.){kind=link}