Nasser Al-Lahham, a senior Palestinian journalist who serves as editor-in-chief of the Palestinian news agency Ma’an and simultaneously heads the Palestinian bureau of the Lebanese channel Al-Mayadeen—affiliated with Hezbollah—was arrested early Monday morning at his home in the town of Doha, near Bethlehem and close to Jerusalem
According to Palestinian sources, IDF soldiers accompanied by Shin Bet agents arrived at his home at dawn, conducted a thorough search, confiscated seven mobile phones, and detained Al-Lahham for questioning. His attorney stated that on Thursday, a military court at Ofer Base is expected to discuss whether to extend his detention
What does Hezbollah’s media unit say?
Al-Lahham, 59, was born in the Dheisheh camp near Bethlehem to a family originally from a village near Ramla. He was named after former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser
In the past, he was a communist activist and was arrested in 1982 for political activity with the PLO. In total, he was arrested five times and spent about six years in Israeli prison. He was released at the end of the First Intifada in 1990
(Eviction Despite Permits: Umm Tuba’s Jerusalem Flashpoint)
He began his journalism career at a radio and TV station established in Jericho by the first Palestinian Authority president, Yasser Arafat. He was active in the student union at Bethlehem University, where he initially studied sociology and later psychology, ultimately earning a doctorate in the field. After completing his studies, he traveled to Geneva and later worked from 1990 to 1995 at a radio station in the Netherlands, where he also studied translation from Hebrew to Arabic. Al-Lahham is fluent in Hebrew
After his arrest, Hezbollah’s media unit released a statement saying
“The Hezbollah Media Relations Unit condemns the arrest by the ‘occupation forces’ of our colleague Nasser Al-Lahham, the director of Al-Mayadeen’s Palestine bureau. This arrest is part of Israel’s ongoing effort to blur the truth, silence every free voice, and suppress any image that reveals its crimes and massacres against civilians in Gaza and the region
(From Jerusalem to Gaza: The Bloody Path of Abu Sninah Ends)
It is worth noting that in late 2023, during the war with Hezbollah, the Israeli government approved a measure to block Al-Mayadeen’s broadcasts in Israel. Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi signed an order to confiscate the network’s equipment and block its websites within the country
