‘We Returned From Hell’: Palestinian Journalists Recount Torture in Israeli Prisons
Recently published special report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) exposes Israel’s ongoing abduction, imprisonment, and torture of Palestinian journalists.
With the world’s attention focused on the brutal fallout of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest illegal war, we thought we’d shine some light on yet another, ongoing atrocity being perpetrated against civilians by these two imperialistic zealots.
We’ve reported extensively on the U.S. and Israeli genocide throughout Gaza—primarily mass murdering women and children—and it’s no exaggeration to state that several of our guests in these episodes have risked much to speak with us and share the stories of the tens of thousands slaughtered with U.S. weaponry because of their religion and ethnicity.
Milena Ansari, the Israel and Palestine assistant researcher at the Middle East and North Africa division at nonprofit Human Rights Watch spoke to us from Jerusalem, where she monitored and reported on human rights conditions and abuses. She and HRW’s Israel-Palestine Director Omar Shakir recently resigned in protest, alleging the group blocked the publication of a report connecting Israel’s denial of Palestinian refugees’ right of return to crimes against humanity under international law.
Jenna Abuhasna, the international advocacy officer at Addameer Prisoner Support & Human Rights Association, talked to us from Ramallah in the Occupied West Bank. In 2021, Israel designated her organization a “terrorist” group—charges U.N. human rights experts vehemently denounce.
Budour Hassan, international researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories at Amnesty International, also joined the show from Ramallah to provide critical context and insights regarding her organization’s comprehensive assessment of the unimaginable, ongoing suffering of the Palestinian people, which it, too, declared as genocide.
Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma and critical care surgeon based in California who volunteered twice in Gaza and witnessed firsthand Israel’s unrelenting brutality on its civilian population, also shared his experiences with listeners, such as witnessing an overwhelming number of Palestinian children shot in the head and chest.
Collectively, their stories paint a gruesome portrait of inconceivable suffering wrought by design to decimate and exterminate an entire people, steal their ancient lands, and eradicate them from history.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu is an international fugitive wanted for his role in committing likely the most heinous war crimes and crimes against humanity since World War II. His BFFs and proxies, former U.S. President Joe Biden and replacement Donald Trump—who’ve supplied billions upon billions of arms to execute said slayings—will plausibly one day be similarly charged.
Our latest episode is a continuation of our coverage of these ongoing atrocities—because while Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth slaughter Iranian schoolgirls, Israel has been unrelenting in its killing of Palestinians, across the region. Now it exports this same genocide to the civilians of Lebanon, where hundreds of thousands have been ordered from their homes in their own vicious Nakba.
Crucial to raising awareness about any injustice, whether murder or apartheid or oppression, are journalists, and so many have risked it all—and paid the ultimate price—to cover and report about what has been taking place on the ground in places such as Gaza and Lebanon, Ukraine and Iran.
This episode highlights their unfinished work, their tragic sacrifice, and the ongoing detainment, torture, and murder of Palestinian journalists by Israel, as documented within a comprehensive and scathing report by the leading global organization dedicated to defending truth-tellers and press freedoms worldwide, the nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Our guest is Sara Qudah, CPJ’s Middle East & North Africa Regional Director, who spoke with us from Paris. She outlines this important report, titled “‘We Returned From Hell’: Palestinian Journalists Recount Torture in Israeli Prisons,” explaining its key findings, sharing the plights of imprisoned and tortured journalists, and stressing the ongoing quest for meaningful accountability.
Why We Covered This Topic
Once again, we’re talking about an ongoing genocide—and this time around, we’re highlighting the systematic targeting and torturing of journalists, those on the ground, risking it all, to expose the truth.
As Sara Qudah from CPJ stresses in this episode:
“Journalists in Gaza, the Palestinian journalists in Gaza, are the only witnesses.”
Some other reasons:
Intentionally targeting journalists is a direct assault on the truth, attempt to extinguish it, and critical component of Israel’s sinister, deadly campaign to cover up its crimes, control the narrative, and erase Palestine from existence.
The displacement and massacre of Palestinian civilians is continuing, unabated, despite the highly touted so-called “ceasefire.”
With all the other hideous stories out there—from Bibi and Trump’s murderous escapades in Iran to the latter’s continuous coverup of his relationship with BFF child rapist Jeffrey Epstein—it’s imperative we don’t get distracted from keeping attention on such ongoing atrocities.
Remember: Senior Israeli officials actually declared, and IDF soldiers later echoed, the murderous notion that there were no “uninvolved” or “innocent civilians” in Gaza.
We’re going to carry over this floater from a previous post:
“The suffering of the Palestinians should be on the cover of every single major news outlet on the planet, every single day, until it ceases and those responsible are held accountable. Why isn’t it? We’ll get more into this in another episode, but remember: The bombs and weapons obliterating these civilians are being supplied by the United States and other allies.”
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has published a 23-page special report exposing the mass abduction, detention, imprisonment, and torture of Palestinian journalists by Israel—with some murdered.
It features testimonies from 59 journalists released between 2023 and 2025, chronicling beatings, sensory deprivation, starvation, medical neglect, electrocution, torture, sexual violence, smear campaigns, and other inhumane treatment specifically targeting journalists and media workers covering the ongoing genocide against Palestinians throughout Gaza, the Occupied West Bank, and the region.
Among other tactics, the Israeli military utilizes so-called ‘Disco Rooms,’ where their abductors blast music at intense volumes that make sleep impossible.
The vast majority of those interviewed were never formally charged with a crime and held under Israel’s administrative detention system, which can be renewed indefinitely.
Any accountability for such crimes, to date, has been elusive.
Who We Interviewed & What They Said
Sara Qudah is CPJ’s Middle East & North Africa Regional Director.
“October 7, 2023 and everything [that] happened afterwards made it very clear to everyone that the Israeli authorities targeting journalists is not misconduct or an isolated event, it is systematic, and they are targeting journalists for a very obvious reason. Journalists in Palestine, in Gaza and in the West Bank are the sole witnesses on what is happening on the ground. They are the only ones who are allowed—they are not allowed—they are forced to be in this space, and they are the only ones who are able to document what is happening on the ground and to show the world what is happening, with foreign media and international media banned from going inside Gaza, and with also restrictions on reporting inside Israel and West Bank, we find that journalists in Gaza, the Palestinian journalists in Gaza, are the only witnesses.”
Additional Resources
Read and download the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) special report: “‘We Returned From Hell’: Palestinian Journalists Recount Torture in Israeli Prisons.”
Support the critical work and mission of CPJ by making a contribution.
Check out CPJ’s recently published annual global tally of slain journalists, which found that a record 129 journalists and media workers were killed worldwide in 2025, more than any other year since it began collecting data in 1992. This was the second consecutive annual record for press deaths worldwide, with Israel responsible for two-thirds of the global total.
Study South Africa’s genocide filing against Israel in the International Court of Justice.
Learn more about the history, legal framework, and ratification of the Genocide Convention at the United Nations
Listen to our previous coverage of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict: “9/11 Redux: Will the Israel-Hamas Conflict Lead to a Renewed War on Terror?” / “The Genocide Case Against Israel: Parts I & II” / “The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World” / “Disappeared: Inside Israel’s ‘Torture Camps’” / “‘Unspeakable Horror’: Amnesty International Accuses Israel of Genocide in Gaza” / “Hospital Bombings, Children Shot in the Head & Mass Starvation: Trauma Surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa on His Time in Gaza” / and more.
Check out all our accompanying Substack pieces, too.
News Beat is a multi-award-winning podcast brought to you in conjunction with Manny Faces Media.
Audio Editor/Sound Designer/Producer/Host: Manny Faces
Editor-In-Chief/Producer: Christopher Twarowski
Managing Editor/Producer: Rashed Mian
Episode Art: Jon Chim