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Ali Samoudi silenced on the anniversary of Shireen Abu Akleh’s murder
Shireen Abu Akleh 1971-2022
IT WILL BE three years on 11 May since Shireen Abu Akleh was assassinated by Israeli state forces. Can it really be a coincidence that veteran journalist Ali Samoudi – who was shot in the back while reporting with Shireen that day – was disappeared by Israeli state forces on 29 April, just 12 days before this anniversary?
Don Nissenbaum's documentary for Zeteo, Who killed Shireen, identifies her killer as Israeli army sniper Alon Sacgiu. Israeli military officials, when asked by the New York Times to confirm the identity of her killer, said it had made “no definitive determination regarding the identity of the individual responsible for the shooting”.
At the same time, they passed along a message from the Sacgiu family requesting that journalists avoid publishing the sniper’s name. Sacgiu, born in 2002, was killed when the military vehicle he was travelling in drove over concealed explosives in Jenin on 27 June 2024.
Six months’ detention
Ali Samoudi
On 8 May CNN reported that the Israeli military’s most senior general in the occupied West Bank has decreed that Ali Samoudi be held for six months under an “administrative detention” order. During British Mandate control of Palestine from 1918 to 1948 administrative detention orders were established as an emergency power to enable British forces to hold people without charge for up to six months at a time. Israeli forces appropriated this power following their military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. Administrative detention orders can be renewed indefinitely.
Ali Samoudi was scheduled to attend a hearing in an Israeli military court on 6 May. That he was not produced in court was an extremely worrying development since Ali has not been seen since his abduction and disappearance by Israeli forces.
‘Brutal interrogation’
Wafa News Agency tweeted a report from the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) that Ali had undergone a “brutal 72-hour interrogation”. This followed a 30-minute “field interrogation” at his son's home, after which Ali was taken to an undisclosed location. Ali suffers from hypertension and type 2 diabetes. The Israeli military said he was transferred to Israeli security forces “for further treatment”.
CNN’s Jerusalem office reported the Israeli military's acknowledgment that it does not have “sufficient evidence” to substantiate allegations of “funding terrorism” that it had levelled against Ali Samoudi when he was disappeared – “even as an Israeli general ordered Ali be incarcerated for six months” on 7 May. The commander issued the order following a military court hearing that took place in Ali’s absence.
“As sufficient evidence was not found against him, and in light of the accumulated intelligence material, security authorities requested to consider issuing an administrative detention order,” Israeli forces said in a statement to CNN.
Under international humanitarian law (IHL) Israel is an “occupying power” in the West Bank and therefore Palestinian civilians living in the West Bank are subject to military law enforced by the occupying power, and when Palestinians are detained by Israeli forces they are typically tried in military courts.
Suppressing reporting
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Ali Samoudi is the latest of at least 84 Palestinian journalists to be arrested by Israeli forces over the 18 months since October 2023.
Israel's incarceration of Ali prevents him from speaking out on the third anniversary of Shireen’s murder. This is especially galling when the likely identity of her killer is being widely reported – and the state of Israel has forcibly ensured that Ali is not there to cover the story.
14 May 2025 It has emerged that Ali Samoudi is being held in the notorious Megiddo prison.
Today John McDonnell MP asked a question in the House of Commons about Ali's detention: video on Twitter here.
John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) (Ind)
I declare an interest as the secretary of the National Union of Journalists parliamentary group.
It is the anniversary of the murder by Israeli forces of Shireen Abu Akleh, the renowned journalist. Alongside her on that day was another journalist, Ali Samoudi, who was shot in the back. Two weeks ago, the Israeli forces arrested him and dragged him from his home, and Ali is now in detention somewhere, but we do not know where. Under international law, journalists are afforded special protection. Will the Minister immediately take up with the Israeli Government the question of where Ali Samoudi is and seek to do everything we can do to secure his release? He works for CNN, Reuters and Al Jazeera, and all he was doing was simply reporting on some of the war crimes that are taking place.
Mr Falconer
My right hon. Friend raises incredibly important points about journalists and I am happy to take up the case in question. Not just journalists but a whole set of people are afforded special protections under international law, including medical professionals and aid workers, many of whom we have seen involved in terrible incidents in Gaza. We have been pressing for accountability and justice on those questions; I think in particular of the three British nationals killed in the World Central Kitchen incident more than a year ago, for whom we are still waiting for justice.
Hansard, the record of Parliamentary proceedings, notes that this is subject to correction: see the latest version and other Gaza questions here.
Release Ali Samoudi and other imprisoned colleagues! 01/08/25
NUJ joins calls for justice over Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing with input from lawyers on the case
Son of detained Palestinian journalist Ali Samoudi pleads for international help Turkish public TV TRT via youtube.com
Remembering Shireen Abu Akleh memorial June 2022
whokilledshireen.com the documentary
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