In Israeli police custody, I was treated not as a journalist but as an enemy: US journalist

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

An American journalist recently detained by Israeli police in the occupied West Bank says he was treated not as a journalist but as an enemy and held in solitary confinement for nearly four days.

Jeremy Loffredo, an investigative journalist with the Grayzone website, spoke about his ordeal in an interview with the Press TV website, his first with any Iranian media following his detention.

Loffredo was arbitrarily detained days after his groundbreaking video that exposed extensive damage to Israeli military bases near Tel Aviv, hit by Iranian ballistic missiles.

After spending days in solitary confinement, he was informally deported to the US.

Loffredo told the Press TV website that the charges against him included “providing information to the enemy during wartime,” which, if convicted, carries “a minimum 25-year prison sentence and a maximum death sentence.”

These unprecedented charges against an American journalist sparked widespread outcry.

“In police custody, I was treated not as a journalist, but as an enemy of the state—a distinction that, for Israel, seemed irrelevant. I was held in solitary confinement for almost 4 days, deprived of adequate food and water, and denied any sense of time,” he remarked.

Loffredo wasn’t the first or only journalist to report on Iran’s retaliatory military operation on October 1, but his video report on the missile damage attracted significant attention.

The details of the attack and the damage it caused were not reported in the Israeli or mainstream Western media.

Loffredo said the lack of coverage of Iran’s retaliatory operation by the Israeli media reflects a deeper issue: an “entrenched ideological patronage system” within the Israeli regime.

“Israeli investigative journalists prioritize loyalty to the military over their responsibility to inform the public and any news that portrays Israel as vulnerable, it’s often suppressed or downplayed in mainstream media,” he told the Press TV website.

He said that it remains “unclear” why Israeli authorities targeted him specifically, but noted that their intelligence services claimed his reporting for Grayzone included “more precise details on missile impact locations than those reported by other outlets.”

 “I believe this was an attempt to curtail my efforts once and for all. Israeli intelligence argued that my report contained more precise details on missile impact locations than others, but I suspect that my ongoing investigations posed a greater perceived threat, motivating authorities to target me specifically,” he stated.

On his assessment of the damage caused by Iranian ballistic missiles, Loffredo explained that dozens of missiles had struck inside Nevatim Airbase, evading Israeli air defense systems.

“In relation to the Nevatim Airbase, which has historically been the launch point for deadly air operations inside Gaza and more recently Lebanon, I only was able to gather eyewitness testimony, considering the base is an entirely closed military zone behind miles of fencing in the Negev desert,” he explained.

“Locals had told me dozens of missiles landed inside the base. This is corroborated by some of the videos we saw circulating online after the strike.”

Regarding the missiles that landed in Tel Aviv, which received less media attention than the Nevatim strike, Loffredo said they “destroyed a significant part of a city block just a few thousand feet from the Mossad headquarters.”

“Cars were entirely destroyed, debris covered everything in a 200-foot radius and the missile crater — which was at least 50 feet wide, was filled in and covered with dirt almost immediately by Israeli authorities, which underscores how embarrassing this was for Israel which boasts often about the efficiency of its billion-dollar missile defense systems,” he elaborated.

Only days after his video report went viral on social media, Loffredo was detained.

“On the afternoon of October 8th, just days after my report on the Iranian missile strike was published, I was stopped for a routine check outside a military checkpoint near Nablus in the northern West Bank,” he told the Press TV website.

Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint asked for his passport and press credentials.

“After a series of phone calls, they ordered me to cross the street. There, they tightly wrapped at least five meters of cloth around my head as a blindfold, shackled my legs, handcuffed my wrists, and walked me into the back of a military truck. They did this to everyone who was in the car with me,” the US journalist said.

“They released everyone except me shortly after arrest and only pursued charges against me.”

On October 20, Israeli authorities “informally deported” him, as formal deportation would have required convicting him of terror charges they couldn’t substantiate.

The police instructed Loffredo to leave the occupied territories but left his case open as a “deterrent,” ensuring that if he returned, he would face detention again.

“Restrictions on what Israeli journalists can publish online have proven ineffective in containing certain information, as Israelis can still access foreign publications. Now, Israel has escalated its tactics, relying on threats of violence, incarceration, and even death to maintain its censorship regime,” he said.

For critical investigative journalists, he added, the “courage threshold” has risen to an extreme: “reporting the truth now means being willing to risk imprisonment or death.”

“The effect is chilling, as fewer journalists will be willing to publish accurate, critical information. I remain committed to reporting on Israel’s actions, but, for now, I can only continue my work from outside Israel and the West Bank.”

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

www.presstv.co.uk