Israeli Military Court Sentences WAFA Journalist Rasha Harzallah to Six Months in Prison and $3,300 Fine.

JERUSALEM: An Israeli military court at the Salem military camp has sentenced Rasha Herzallah, a journalist with the Palestinian News and Information Agency (WAFA), to six months in prison and fined her 13,000 shekels (approximately $3,300). The sentence was handed down today, Sunday, November 17. According to Palestine News and Information Agency - WAFA, Herzallah's family reports that the ruling means she will remain imprisoned until December 1, 2024. She was summoned for interrogation at the Israeli detention center in Hawara on June 2, 2024, after which she was placed under administrative detention, without charges or trial. Herzallah is one of 94 journalists detained by Israeli authorities since the beginning of Israel's ongoing war on Gaza in October 2023. Among those detained are four female journalists, including Herzallah, Rola Hassanin, Bushra Al-Tawil, and Amal Shuja'iyah, a journalism student from Birzeit University. At least 16 journalists from Gaza have also been detained by the occupation si nce then, while 17 others from the West Bank, including Herzallah, are being held under Israel's policy of administrative detention, which allows for indefinite imprisonment without charges or trial.