Reuters' Gaza Correspondent Enters Fifth Week in Investigative Detention

Case Belies Israel's Claim Palestinian Journalists Arrested Only for Underground Activities

Middle East Watch today called on Israeli military authorities to release immediately journalist Taher Shriteh, whom they have held in investigative detention since January 28 without filing charges against him.

The case of Shriteh, who is the Gaza correspondent of the Reuters news agency and a contract employee of the New York Times, the Times of London, BBC, CBS News and Voice of America, is of particular interest because it sheds light on the motives of military authorities in arresting Palestinian journalists. The case also provides disturbing evidence of two other pervasive human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip: the mistreatment of detainees during interrogation, and the propensity of military judges to refuse bail to suspects in what are deemed to be security cases, regardless of the circumstances of the case.