Andrey X is an independent journalist and activist based in the occupied West Bank.    ( andreyx.com )

Ramallah, October 13 (RHC)-- One of the five journalists arrested by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank earlier this week, including the one who reported on Iranian missile strikes, has spoken about their harrowing ordeal while in custody.

Andrey X, an independent journalist based in Palestine and co-founder of Kompass Media, in a detailed post on X, formerly Twitter, said he was “illegally detained” by the Israeli occupation forces with four other journalists, one of them Grayzone journalist Jeremy Loffredo.

Press TV was one of the first news outlets to report on Loffredo’s arrest by the Israeli military days after he published a report about damage caused by Iranian missiles at Israeli military sites in Tel Aviv,

Loffredo’s video report posted on the YouTube channel of Grayzone, an American independent news website and blog, revealed what had been concealed and censored by the Tel Aviv regime.  While Loffredo hasn’t yet come out with any statement, after being released but barred from leaving the occupied territories, His colleague Andrey explained the sequence of events following their arrest.

It happened on October 8, 2024, at approximately 01:00 PM local time, when a car with five journalists (an American, a Palestinian journalist, a Russian journalist, a Canadian videographer, and an Israeli photographer) was stopped at a military checkpoint in the northern West Bank, he stated.

The journalists were held for an hour and a half in their car, while the regime forces collected their documents, followed by a search of the car, including their personal items.

Andrey wrote that the regime soldiers then “illegally requested that the journalists hand in their phones, and when they refused, the soldiers pointed a gun at one of the journalists, hit him with their hands and the barrel of a gun, then dragged him out of the car and slammed him onto the concrete.”

“When lying on the ground, they pointed 2 guns at his head. The rest of the journalists exited the car and the military raided it, confiscating phones, cameras, and personal items.”  The journalists were then told to sit under the scorching heat of the sun, which caused the Palestinian journalist to feel dizzy. She asked for an ambulance but the request was turned down.

“After two hours, the soldiers handcuffed and blindfolded the journalists. The Israeli photographer had a panic attack and started throwing up, and after stating she was Israeli, was allowed to remain without a blindfold,” Andrey wrote in the X post.  The Palestinian journalist, who was feeling very unwell, was left in the sun for two more hours, he wrote before being released.

“In the meantime, the other four journalists were stacked on top of each other into a military jeep, and taken to a military base. There they were held blindfolded and handcuffed on the floor for two hours while being insulted and interrogated by the soldiers,” the independent journalist explained.  “The soldiers told the female Israeli photographer that she should have been raped by Hamas.”

At approximately 04.00 PM local time, the regime forces handed over the detained journalists to the police, who took them to the police station.  “At the station, the journalists were forced to be photographed in front of an Israeli flag with a nationalist slogan on it, while the officers were insulting them,” he wrote.

The journalists were “interrogated” regarding their political affiliation and work, and refused the right to see a lawyer, denied food and water.  “The two female journalists were released without charges at 11:00 PM. The Russian-Israeli journalist was released at midnight. The American journalist was held for three days and was released Friday, October 11th,” Andrey hastened to add, referring to Loffredo.

He said the Israeli army confiscated two phones and one camera which they haven’t returned.  “This marks a precedent for IOF treatment of Israelis and internationals, but this is the standard procedure for kidnapping Palestinians across the West Bank,” he noted.

In a report published on Friday, Grayzone said while Loffredo’s colleagues were released after 11 hours, the “Judea and Samaria” division of the Israeli police opened an investigation into Loffredo for “aiding the enemy in a time of war.”

According to the police, the report stated, Jeremy had revealed “the locations of missile drops near or inside sensitive security facilities, with the aim of bringing this to the notice of the enemy, and thereby assisting them in their future attacks.”

On October 1, the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at military sites in the occupied territories, which caused significant damage that was covered up by the regime.  Operation True Promise II came in response to the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in Tehran, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan in Beirut.

A journalist from the Israeli news outlet YNet countered the allegation that Loffredo violated Israeli censorship laws by pointing out that the military censor approved his own article in which a tweet containing Loffredo’s full video report for The Grayzone was embedded, Grayzoen reported.

The publication also released a statement on Thursday, rejecting the Israeli police’s accusations against Loffredo, affirming its support for Loffredo.

“The charges stem from Jeremy's report for @TheGrayzoneNews showing the aftermath of Iranian attacks on military and intelligence targets inside Israel—the same exact locations which were openly featured in reports broadcast on ABC News and PBS, neither of which currently face such charges.”