Israel’s security forces detained Nasser al-Laham, a Palestinian reporter working for a Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese news outlet, during an overnight raid on his home in Bethlehem, Judea on Sunday.
“Last night, IDF soldiers apprehended a wanted individual in Bethlehem. The wanted individual was transferred to the Israel Police for further processing,” the Israel Defense Forces told JNS on Monday.
Police confirmed in a statement to JNS that an investigation into al-Laham had been initiated “following suspicions of incitement, support for terrorism and affiliation with a hostile organization.”
Al-Laham’s employer, Lebanon’s Hezbollah-linked Al Mayadeen outlet, claimed that Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) officers had searched his broadcasting studio during the arrest raid, as well as “electronic equipment and media devices linked to his journalistic work.”
Al Mayadeen said he is expected to be brought before the Ofer military court on Thursday for a hearing on the extension of his pre-trial arrest.
Al-Laham’s arrest was condemned by Hezbollah. In a statement cited by Iran’s IRNA news agency, the terror group expressed its “solidarity with Nasser Al-Laham, Al Mayadeen network and all courageous journalists and media activists who strive to convey the truth in the face of danger and against an enemy that does not hesitate to target and kill them, thereby violating all international treaties and laws.”
On Nov. 13, 2023, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi closed Al Mayadeen for 45 days after getting authorization from the country’s Security Cabinet, as well as from then Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Like Qatar’s Al Jazeera, which Israel banned in April 2024, Al Mayadeen has repeatedly been accused of serving as a terrorist propaganda outlet.
The ban on Al Mayadeen expired in January 2024, but Karhi reinstated it in August after one of its correspondents broadcast live from the site where a rocket barrage fired by Hezbollah killed 12 Druze children.
“Allowing a Hezbollah reporter to broadcast from the scene of the massacre that Hezbollah carried out is absurd by any standard,” Karhi said at the time, noting that Jerusalem had still been waiting for defense officials to issue their opinion on the ban’s renewal, as required by law.
Al-Laham has repeatedly incited against the Jewish state, including by saying in January 2019 that Jerusalem had become so arrogant that one day, someone angry could drop a nuclear bomb on it, and there would be nobody left to say Boker tov (“Good morning” in Hebrew).
The Palestinian reporter added that on that day he would write an article headlined Lo Ichpat Li, meaning “I don’t care” in Hebrew.
