There has been a tit-for-tat arrests of journalists by Palestinian political rivals Hamas and Fatah of late, each side carrying out an arrest in response to an arrest by the other faction, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported.
The latest victim is Mohammed Eshtawi, the head of pro-Hamas satellite TV station Al-Aqsa’s operations in the West Bank, who was arrested by the Palestinian Authority’s security forces in the West Bank city of Ramallah on December 14. He was previously arrested a month ago at his home in Tulkarem and, before that, was detained from August 30 to September 2.
Eshtawi’s latest arrest came amid Hamas celebrations to mark the 22nd anniversary of the group’s creation and was preceded by the arrest of Ziyad Ismail Awad, the Kuwaiti TV station Wissal’s head of programming, on December 13 in the Gaza Strip.
Awad was arrested at around 8 a.m. at his home in Deir Al-Balah by the Hamas interior ministry’s security forces and was interrogated for more than 10 hours about his work for Wissal and, in particular, a programme about the living conditions of the Gaza Strip’s inhabitants.
“It is hard to keep track of all the arrests of journalists being made by each side,” Paris-based RSF said. “This is getting ridiculous. We appeal to Fatah and Hamas to put a stop to this endless cycle.”
There has been a wave of arrests of Al-Aqsa journalists and cameramen in recent months. Cameraman Oussid Amarena, who had already been arrested at least twice in September, was arrested again on November 13 in Bethlehem.
Other recently arrested Al-Aqsa employees include Alaa Al-Titi on November 12 in Hebron, Tariq Abu Zayd on November 8 in Jenin (and on August 20), Farid Al-Sid on November 2 in Tulkarem, Bilal Al-Tahrir on November 2 in Nablus and Moussa Sadiqi on October 21 in Nablus. Murad Abu Al-Baha, a Nablus-based Hamas information office, was arrested on September 24.
