Palestinian journalists allege detention and torture by Israeli forces

Israeli authorities notified the Palestinian Commission of Detainees Affairs on August 9, 2026, of the death of journalist Ihab Diab, who had been arrested on December 12, 2023, and whose health was previously reported as good. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said the official cause cited health issues lacked detail, and Diab’s death raises the total number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli custody since 1967 to 328, including 91 since October 7, 2023.

Former Gaza journalists Yousef Sharaf and Alaa Al-Sarraj, now free, recounted being detained, beaten with sticks and batons, denied proper medical treatment, and forced to undergo a makeshift knee operation with a sterilized razor blade. Sharaf also described the loss of 37 relatives in a single bombing and his arrest after seeking shelter at Al-Shifa Hospital. Al-Sarraj said interrogators focused on his journalistic network, questioning him multiple times daily. Their accounts align with UN and human-rights reports documenting secret, incommunicado detention, torture, and violations of protections afforded to journalists under international humanitarian law.