Ramallah, August 12 (QNA) - The number of journalists held in Israeli custody reached 40, including both men and women, following the arrest of journalist Mohammad Awad from Ramallah at dawn Wednesday, the Prisoner’s Society said.

The Society added that among those currently detained are five female journalists, with documentation and monitoring processes it conducted indicating that more than 250 male and female journalists have been subjected to detention since the start of the genocide.

These cases, the Society noted, include those who were sentenced by the Israeli occupation to remain in custody and those who were later released.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation authorities continue to impose house arrest on three other journalists as part of the methodical targeting of Palestinian journalists.

More than 260 journalists of both genders have been killed since the start of the genocide, among them two who died in custody, the Society pointed out, stating that the fate of journalists Nidal Al-Wahidi and Haitham Abdel Wahid remains unaccounted for amid the continuation of their forced disappearance.

The organization asserted that the occupation authorities continue to up the ante and target journalists through methodical detentions, along with cracking down on them during working hours.

This is alongside the killing of journalists in the Gaza enclave in one of the bloodiest stages as part of a relentless attempt to obscure the truth and the Palestinian narrative, the Society said.

It added that Israeli authorities in the West Bank target journalists through administrative detention, meaning detention without charge or trial, on the pretext of what they call a “secret file,” noting that 19 journalists are currently being held in administrative detention.

  The rights organization further noted that Israeli authorities also target journalists through detention on what they call “incitement” charges, including for exercising their freedom of expression, as social media platforms have been leveraged to suppress journalists and substantially throttle their work.

The journalists are subject to a variety of systematic crimes that Palestinian detainees face, including starvation, medical neglect, torture, maltreatment, sexual assaults, and harsh detention conditions.

The organization called the attention of the international human rights system to these abuses and urged the system to assume its genuine and essential role in ending the methodical impotence that has overshadowed the humanitarian system since the beginning of the genocide.

The statement called for ensuring the protection of journalists and their right to practice their profession, which constitutes one of the key tools that have helped expose the magnitude of crimes committed against the Palestinian people.

The Society stressed that leveraging these abusive mechanisms is part of a policy that intends to obliterate the truth and withhold the exact practices that take place in custody and in the Palestinian territories, as well as hold the Palestinian narrative in check. (QNA)