Reporters Without Borders calls on the Israeli authorities to release Palestinian radio journalist Sharif Al-Rajoub and to explain the reasons for his arbitrary arrest by Israeli soldiers at his home in Doura, a town near the West Bank city of Hebron, on 3 June.

“If the Israeli authorities say nothing or prove unable to provide valid grounds for Rajoub’s arrest, we will have to regard it as yet another deplorable attempt to gag the Palestinian media”, Reporters Without Borders said.

The Israeli soldiers searched Rajoub’s home before taking him to a military detention centre. The fact that he works for Sawt Al-Aqsa, a radio station affiliated to Hamas, may explain the raid. As there is no indication that the authorities intend to charge him, the grounds for his arrest may be alleged threat to Israel’s security.

Reporters Without Borders reiterates its call for the release of all Palestinian journalists held in Israeli prisons and detention centres, in many cases without any charges being brought against them.

The most recent previous case was that of Bahaa Khairi Attalah Moussa, the head of Al-Asir, a satellite TV station for Palestinian prisons, who was arrested on 17 May near Jenin, in the northern part of the West Bank.