The Committee to Protect Journalists has demanded that Israeli authorities release Palestinian-American journalist Naqaa Hamed, who was arrested on Tuesday at a temporary army checkpoint near Bethlehem.

Returning from a work assignment near Hebron for Turkish state broadcaster TRT, Hamed and three other crew members were stopped and photographed by soldiers, before she was separately interrogated over her reporting and led away.

Reports in Israel accused Hamed of espionage and cooperating with “an enemy entity” due to her work for Iranian broadcaster Press TV.

Israeli police told the CPJ that she is under investigation for “trading with the enemy, incitement, and support for Iran.”

CPJ regional director Sara Qudah said: “Unsubstantiated espionage allegations must not be used to criminalize journalism, and the systemic harassment and intimidation targeting her work in the occupied West Bank must end.”

Hamed’s husband Bashar Abed told the CPJ that her arrest followed an online campaign condemning her coverage of the siege of the West Bank village of Qusra.