The Palestinian journalist Latifeh Abdellatif. Photo taken from her Instagram account.
Israeli forces arrested Palestinian journalist Latifeh Abdellatif in Jerusalem on Sunday after raiding her home. A contributor to the online outlet Middle East Eye, she is accused of "incitement" and "supporting terrorism." An Israeli judge ordered her release Monday, according to CNN, but the Jerusalem governorate's official X account said an Israeli court had nonetheless extended her detention.
Abdellatif is a freelance photojournalist whose work has been published by Reuters, ABC News, BBC, Al-Jazeera, and TRT, according to her Instagram bio. Her lawyer and mother said she was arrested on the street by officers in unmarked vehicles while returning home. In a statement, police said Abdellatif had posted a video of the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in which he expressed his wish to die as a "martyr."
The journalist has previously faced repression by Israeli forces. In May 2021, she was beaten, pepper-sprayed, and had her headscarf forcibly removed by Israeli forces while filming the detention of a young boy in occupied East Jerusalem.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that since the start of the war in Gaza, an "unprecedented" number of journalists and media workers have been arrested in what they and their lawyers consider retaliation for their reporting, CNN reported.
As of March 13, 2025, CPJ had recorded 75 journalist arrests in the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem — 70 by Israeli authorities and five by Palestinian authorities. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned Abdellatif's arrest Monday, saying in a statement that Israeli security forces "have arrested and expelled eight journalists from the Old City [of Jerusalem] and the al-Aqsa Mosque since the beginning of this month."