Israeli court sentences Palestinian journalist to 10 months in prison

An Israeli court has handed down a 10-month prison sentence against a Palestinian journalist as the Tel Aviv regime presses ahead with its repressive measures against members of the press both in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip.

The father of Hamdallah Mardawi, a resident of Hableh village in the northwestern West Bank, said the ruling was passed on his son following several court hearings.

The father noted that Hamdallah was arrested by Israeli forces on September 23, when he crossed the King Hussein Bridge, also known as the Allenby Bridge, which crosses the Jordan River near the Palestinian city of Ariha and connects the occupied West Bank with Jordan.

The Palestinian journalist was apparently returning from Malaysia, where he had earned a master's degree in public relations and media.

Israeli forces have committed ‘56 violations’ against Palestinian journalists since January

That is according to the Britain-based Journalists Support Committee (JSC).

He added that Israeli intelligence forces transferred his son to Petah Tikva interrogation center immediately after his arrest, and have extended his detention several times.

Separately, Israeli military forces have detained female Palestinian journalist Bushra Tawil after they stopped her car at a checkpoint near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Palestinian news outlets said the former political prisoner was moved to Huwwara military base south of Nablus. 

According to the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA), the Israeli military committed 13 violations against media freedom in September.

MADA, in a report published on Monday, announced that the violations includes the injury of 7 journalists as a result of being struck with metal bullets and gas bombs, or being physically assaulted by Israeli soldiers and extremist settlers.

Palestinian reporter blinded in one eye by Israeli bullet in West Bank protest

Israeli forces have shot and blinded a Palestinian journalist in one eye during attacks on protesters in al-Khalil (Hebron) in the West Bank.

The report then pointed to the recent detention of three other journalists, preventing Palestinian correspondents from field reporting and confiscation of a vehicle belonging to Palestine TV.

Back in April, more than a dozen press institutions appealed to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to pressure the Tel Aviv regime to release Palestinian journalists being held in Israeli prisons amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The eighteen institutions, in a letter addressed to the 68-year-old Chilean politician, expressed great concern over the increasing cases of infection with the novel coronavirus in Israel and the occupied territories, warning that they fear the deadly disease could afflict thousands of Palestinian inmates, including journalists, in Israeli prisons.

More than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in some 17 Israeli jails, with dozens of them serving multiple life sentences.

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