On 21 November 2015, about a dozen Israeli soldiers stormed into Alqeeq's apartment by violently breaking the windows and the main door. The soldiers confiscated his phone and computer and questioned him in one of the rooms before forcing him, handcuffed and blindfolded, into a military vehicle, and taking him to Al Jalameh prison, infamous for its ill-treatment of Palestinian children often kept in solitary confinement. After his arrest, Alqeeq was detained incommunicado for 20 days, after which he was briefly allowed to contact his lawyer until 15 December, when he was again denied access to the outside world for three weeks. His family was not allowed to visit or contact him in any way since his arrest.

Alqeeq reported to his lawyer that he was severely tortured during his incommunicado detention. Among other ill-treatments, he was exposed to extreme temperatures and subjected to food and sleep deprivation, while the detaining authorities kept threatening to hurt his family. On 25 November 2015, in protest against this treatment, he started a hunger strike which aggravated his health. Due to his fragile health, he was transferred to the Al Affouleh hospital where he remains tied to the hospital bed.

Although he was accused of "inciting violence through the media," Alqeeq was never charged or presented to a judge. Like too many Palestinian prisoners, he is currently detained under administrative detention, a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold prisoners indefinitely on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial. "Attacks on freedom of expression, opinion and peaceful assembly are systematic in Gaza and the West Bank," says Inès Osman, Legal Coordinator at Alkarama. "In this context, Alqeeq's case is just one of the many cases of harassment of journalists in Palestine, which is why Israel is ranked 101th out of 180 countries on press freedom by Reporters without Borders."

Concerned over Alqeeq's treatment and the fact that he is being detained on the sole basis of his work as a reporter, Alkarama seized the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression (SR FRDX), asking him to call upon the Israeli authorities to release him immediately.

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