At least 150 journalists and activists have staged a sit-in protest in front of UN offices in Gaza City to decry Israel’s detention of Al Jazeera's Kabul bureau chief Samer Allawi.
Protesters in Saturday’s event, which was organised by the Doha Centre for Media Freedom (DCMF), called on the United Nations to intervene against Israel's "arbitrary" detention of Allawi and urged his immediate release.
Israeli authorities arrested Allawi on August 10 at the Allenby Bridge on the Jordan-West Bank border after a three-week visit to his family in his hometown of Sebastiya in the West Bank district of Nablus.
An Israeli military court in the northern West Bank has extended his detention, accusing him of "membership of Hamas" and having "contact with members in Hamas's military wing."
DCMF Gaza branch director, Adel Zaanoun, denounced the illegal and arbitrary arrest of Allawi and called on international community and human rights groups to intensify efforts and campaigns to pressure the Israeli government to release Allawi and other journalists detained in Israeli prisons.
"Journalists are gathered here today to make it loud and clear to Israel that it should immediately release Samer Allawi and all other journalists detained in Israel. The only crime those journalists committed was being professional and being advocates of the freedom of press and expression." Zaanoun said.
He also re-iterated the DCMF determination to continue this campaign, as part of its fight and support for freedom of expression and its strive to achieve a better future for media freedom, which is a cornerstone of human rights principles.
Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza Wael Dahdouh said Allawi had visited his family in Nablus several times before without incident.
Israel was holding Allawi without charge "in line with Israel's arbitrary practices against Al Jazeera," he added.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), based in New York, has demanded Israel "clarify the legal reasons why Samer Allawi remains in detention."
