Israeli forces release Al Jazeera correspondent after raid

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 3 November 2026 |  JP Global Monitoring

Israeli forces released Al Jazeera correspondent Montaser Nassar hours after detaining him at his home in Dura in the occupied West Bank, the broadcaster reported. It said he and other detainees were assaulted.

Summary

DURA — Israeli forces released Al Jazeera correspondent Montaser Nassar several hours after detaining him at his home in Dura, near Hebron in the occupied West Bank, on November 3, the broadcaster reported.

Nassar was reporting on the raid from home when soldiers entered the residence, according to Al Jazeera. Its Hebron reporter, Mohamad Atrash, said at least 20 Palestinians were detained during the operation and later released as troops withdrew.

Accounts of the detention

Atrash, relaying an account from Nassar’s wife, said soldiers assaulted her and confiscated the journalist’s personal phone. Al Jazeera said video showed Nassar blindfolded and handcuffed as he was led into a military vehicle at about 2:30 a.m. local time. In a separate Al Jazeera video, Nassar also alleged that his wife had been assaulted.

Atrash said Nassar was held for several hours at an army camp near the Fawwar refugee camp, south of Hebron. After speaking to the journalist following his release, Atrash reported that detainees were assaulted on the way to the camp and again there, forced into exhausting positions and threatened by officers from Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service.

Earlier raid and bureau closure

The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms, known as MADA, recorded Nassar’s account of a separate raid on his home on September 26, 2024. He said soldiers searched and damaged the home after learning he was a journalist, while he and his family were kept in a room for about an hour.

Two years before the latest raid, Israeli forces raided Al Jazeera’s Ramallah bureau on September 22, 2024, and ordered it closed for 45 days, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The group said the military order accused the broadcaster’s West Bank operations of incitement and support for terrorism; the committee opposed the closure. An editor’s note on its report recorded a further 60-day renewal on April 4, 2025.

Atrash said Israel was holding at least 40 Palestinian journalists, about half under administrative detention without charge. That figure is his estimate and is separate from the circumstances of Nassar’s detention.

ATTRIBUTION: Prepared by JournalismPakistan staff, based on Al Jazeera reports published November 3, 2026, the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms’ 2024 annual report and a Committee to Protect Journalists report published September 22, 2024.

PHOTO: AI-generated; for illustrative purposes only.