By Awad Rajoub
RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – A Palestinian woman journalist was detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, according to local media.
Rasha Herzallah, from the northern city of Nablus, was summoned by Israeli intelligence agents for questioning at a detention center in the Ariel settlement in the northern West Bank, the state news agency Wafa reported.
Upon arrival, Herzallah was ordered to remain in custody for 72 hours, the broadcaster said.
The charges against the Palestinian journalist remain unclear.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, for its part, condemned the Israeli detention of Herzallah and called on all international institutions to intervene to halt Israeli “crimes” against Palestinian journalists.
According to figures released by the Palestinian Prisoner Society, some 49 journalists remain in Israeli custody, including four women reporters.
At least 147 journalists and media professionals have been killed by Israeli army fire since Oct. 7, 2023, official Palestinian figures showed.
Israel has launched a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack last Oct. 7, killing more than 36,400 people, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and injuring over 82,600 others, according to local health authorities.
Nearly eight months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid Israel's crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala