Israeli forces detain Al-Araby Al-Jadeed correspondent Samer Khawira in Nablus

Israeli forces arrested Samer Khawira, the correspondent of The New Arab's sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, at dawn on Thursday after raiding his home in Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank.

Khawira's wife, Iman Amer, said Israeli forces stormed the Asira Street area in Nablus at around three am on Thursday.

They raided the house of one of their neighbours and beat him, before realising that he wasn't the intended target, she said.

After that, Israeli forces banged on Khawira's door with their rifle butts, storming the family home and carrying out a quick search.

They then handcuffed and blindfolded the journalist before taking him away in an army vehicle to a military base.

Khawira, a father of four, is a correspondent for Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and also works for local media outlets.

Palestinian news agency Wafa also reported on Thursday that Israeli forces had arrested two Palestinians from Arura and Deir Ghassaneh villages northwest of Ramallah, as well as a young man from Bethlehem who was detained after being severely beaten.

In Hebron, Israeli forces arrested four Palestinians, including a former prisoner, as well as several workers near the separation wall in Tarqumiya in the west of the governorate.

Khawira's arrest comes as part of Israel's ongoing crackdown on Palestinian journalists in the West Bank, with dozens of them arrested since October 7 2023.

On 20 March Jonathan Dagher, head of the Middle East desk at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said in a report that "the Israeli occupation's ongoing attacks against reporters in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have multiplied in recent months, to the point where they are now commonplace. The normalisation of this violence must end".

Israel's war on Gaza is the deadliest conflict ever for journalists, according to a recent report by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs' Costs of War project.

Its findings state that more journalists have been killed in Gaza than in both world wars, the Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia, and the United States's war in Afghanistan combined.

Since 7 October 2023, the Israeli army has killed about 212 Palestinian journalists, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.