LONDON: Israeli authorities on Wednesday released Palestinian journalist Asmaa Harish, according to local media reports, after she had spent six months in administrative detention at Damon Prison.
Harish was detained in April without charge or trial under the practice of administrative detention, which Israeli authorities often use for “security reasons.”
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, a Ramallah-based human rights organization, said that Harish was among more than 80 Palestinian journalists who had been imprisoned and subjected to ill-treatment and rights violations since Oct. 7 last year.
The group added that dozens of Palestinian journalists remain in Israeli custody, including six women who continue to be arbitrarily detained.
Damon Prison, which is located near Haifa, has been criticized by humanitarian organizations for holding Palestinian detainees and undocumented migrant workers in “inhumane conditions.”
The facility was temporarily closed in 2000 following mounting concerns about the treatment of prisoners.
The prisoner support group Addameer in 2023 reported little evidence of “significant changes or improvements” in the prison’s conditions since the 1950s.
