US senator slams ‘bogus’ spy claims, demands immediate release of journalist Naqaa Hamed

A US senator has denounced the Israeli regime’s abduction of Palestinian-American journalist Naqaa Hamed as a wrongful detention and demanded her immediate release, as an occupation court keeps the Press TV correspondent behind bars on fabricated espionage allegations.

Senator Chris Van Hollen took to X on Thursday and called the case another instance of an American citizen “wrongfully detained by the Israeli govt.”

“Naqaa Hamed, an American journalist, was stopped by the IDF, interrogated about her work, & now faces bogus espionage allegations,” he wrote. “The Israeli govt should immediately release Naqaa, NOW.”

The Maryland Democrat quoted the Committee to Protect Journalists, which has called the spy claims unsubstantiated and warned that they must not be used to criminalize journalism in the occupied West Bank.

Occupation forces stopped Hamed on Tuesday at the Tuqu’ checkpoint near Bethlehem as she returned from a reporting assignment covering settler violence in Masafer Yatta.

Colleagues traveling with her, including cameramen working for Turkey’s TRT, said Israeli soldiers forced the journalists to sit on the ground, photographed the crew, and isolated Hamed for questioning about her coverage. Her phone and laptop were confiscated before she was transferred to an undisclosed facility.

The 38-year-old journalist, originally from Beitin near Ramallah, holds dual Palestinian and American citizenship. A Birzeit University graduate with more than 15 years of field reporting on Israeli settler-colonialism, she joined Press TV in 2024 and has documented the steadfastness of ordinary Palestinians under occupation. She has also contributed to Drop Site and worked with other outlets.

Family members say she had already been targeted for weeks by settler incitement after her reporting from Qusra. Israeli regime-aligned accounts smeared her as an “agent of propaganda” and part of “Iran’s media influence,” fabrications designed to manufacture a pretext for silencing a reporter who showed the world what occupation, siege, and aggression look like on the ground.

Israeli outlet Ynet, citing anonymous military sources, later claimed she is suspected of “cooperating with an enemy entity” and possibly espionage because of her work for an Iranian broadcaster. No official evidence has been produced. The Committee to Protect Journalists said those allegations must not be used to criminalize journalism.

On Thursday, an Israeli occupation court extended her detention until September 23, pending further “investigation.” She remains in custody without charge.

In Italy, a lawmaker has filed a parliamentary question over the abduction, and the Italian journalists’ union has condemned the seizure as part of the regime’s pattern of targeting reporters who document its crimes.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk