LONDON: The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “deeply alarmed” by what it described as a “rapid escalation” in the detention of journalists by Israeli authorities, with four reporters held in the first four days of November.

Two remain in Israeli custody, amid allegations of mistreatment by Israeli forces.

The recent detentions are part of “a campaign of intimidation and silencing by Israeli authorities, who have repeatedly demonstrated disregard for international law,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah.

“We reiterate our call for the immediate release of all imprisoned Palestinian journalists, and an end to the harassment, intimidation and detention practices aimed at silencing them.”

On Monday, Israeli soldiers arrested Samer Khuwaira, a presenter for Radio Hawa, at his home in Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

His lawyer said Khuwaira was likely to face administrative detention without charge. He had previously spent nine months in administrative detention, during which he said he was tortured.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces carried out two further raids.

They detained Al Jazeera correspondent Montaser Nassar for several hours after taking him from his home in Dura, near Hebron.

Nassar told CPJ that soldiers blew open his front door and blindfolded him. He said he and other detainees were subjected to verbal abuse, and that soldiers spat at anyone who moved while warning that “Hebron would face the same fate as Gaza.”

That night, Israeli police arrested Abed Abu Shehadeh, a presenter of the “Arab48” podcast and journalist for Local Call, accusing him of “contacting a foreign agent” after he interviewed exiled Palestinian intellectual Azmi Bishara in Qatar.

His cousin, Sami Abu Shehadeh, leader of the Balad party, said the detention was part of a right-wing effort to discredit the results of Israel’s recent elections. Sami Abu Shehadeh withdrew from the election under pressure from right-wing and centrist Zionist parties.

Abed Abu Shehadeh remains in custody after the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Magistrate’s Court extended his detention until Sunday, Nov. 8.

On Wednesday, Israeli soldiers detained Hazem Nasser, a camera operator for An-Najah TV, for several hours at an undisclosed military facility near Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank.

The detention came less than two weeks after Nasser was released following more than two years in Israeli custody under an administrative detention order.

Sources who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals told CPJ that Nasser was held in rear handcuffs for seven hours and warned that discussing his treatment with the media could lead to his arrest.

The arrests come amid a rise in violence across the West Bank, including near-daily military operations, home demolitions and record levels of settler violence.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog reportedly warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials in an October letter that continued violence could trigger a deadly confrontation between security forces and Israeli civilians, potentially leading to civil war.

A UN report issued late last month found that Israel was committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the West Bank, including “extermination, persecution, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence.”

In October, CPJ issued another alert, saying the escalating wave of violations against Palestinian and foreign journalists in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories showed that Israel continued to act “with complete disregard for international laws.”