The detention of journalist Said Hassanin was extended today (28.2) by five additional days.

Hassanin, an editor at Nas Radio station and announcer for Bnei Sakhnin football club, was arrested on Tuesday following an interview he gave to Hamas's Al-Aqsa channel. In the interview, according to a report in "Haaretz," he said that "the Islamic resistance acted with complete humanity in accordance with Islamic law and proved to the world that Hamas preserves human dignity and respects the women who were taken captive on October 7. Hamas protected them according to religious teachings, Islamic law, and Palestinian conscience."

He also said that the hostage Omer Shem Tov kissed the head of one of the terrorists on stage in Gaza "to prove that they treated him humanely and with respect." According to Hassanin, "Shem Tov respects them as human beings and acknowledges that the female hostages were not harmed. There is a crucial distinction here between those who are barbaric and cruel and those who act humanely according to their doctrine, laws, and Islamic religious principles."

Regarding Palestinian citizens of Israel who enlist in the army, he said: "There are weak-minded individuals who join the army's ranks and serve the enemy's army. Hamas wanted to tell the Palestinians of Historical Palestine called Israeli Arabs, that they do not want them to join the enemy's army, the occupation army, and it's time for anyone who has become weak-minded or is just thinking about joining the occupation army to think a million times about where they're going, how they're selling their conscience, their morals, and their religion on this immoral, irreligious, and non-national path."

Police suspected Hassanin of contact with a foreign agent, publishing praise, sympathy, or encouragement for acts of terrorism, identifying with a terrorist organization and incitement to terrorism, as well as publicly displaying identification with a terrorist organization.. Hassanin was also fired from his job at Nas Radio and his engagement with Bnei Sakhnin club was terminated.

On Wednesday, Hassanin was brought for his first detention extension before Judge Jenny Tanos. The police requested seven additional days of detention, but Judge Tanos approved only two. Today, Hassanin's case came before Judge Yossi Torres, with the police again requesting seven additional days of detention.

"This is a very difficult case," declared the police representative at the hearing, which Hassanin watched via video call from his location in Megiddo Prison. "Our suspect was interviewed on a channel belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization, said harsh things," the police representative added and warned that Hassanin's release could lead to obstruction of the ongoing investigation.

Attorney Alaa Mahajna, Hassanin's counsel, asked whether his client had been interrogated since the previous hearing on Wednesday and was answered negatively. However, according to the police representative, "many actions were performed in the investigation which also yielded results." Throughout most of the investigation, the police representative avoided answering questions directly and instead referred the judge to the confidential investigation file.

Attorney Mahajna again asked, as in the previous detention extension hearing, who is the foreign agent with whom Hassanin is suspected of having contact. "The very fact that he was interviewed on a channel of a terrorist organization and the interviewer himself," replied the police representative. According to him, "This is a journalist who presented and identified with a terrorist organization."

"Why haven't you arrested Zvi Yehezkeli [An Israeli right wing journalist, O.P.]? He incites every day. Are you making political arrests?" Attorney Mahajna wondered.

"I'm not responsible for that," the officer replied and added: "This statement is really out of place."

At the end of the brief questioning of the officer, the police's counsel, Attorney Tamir Suaed, reiterated the request to grant investigators seven more days of detention. "The suspect has not yet been confronted in his interrogation, there is still much material to present to him," he said.

Attorney Mahajna, on the other hand, argued that there is no need to keep his client in detention and that if required, he would come for further investigation. "We are talking about a specific event that ended with the conclusion of the interview," he said. "Today it was explained to us that it's one interview of several minutes, that the contact with the agent is through the interview. This is not about providing security information or exposing state secrets, it's about an offense that is intertwined with one event and then they attribute contact with a foreign agent with the interviewer in the interview. This event has ended."

According to Attorney Mahajna, "This is the first time in the State of Israel that a journalist who is a sports commentator is arrested for an interview he gave. [...] Is it not possible to neutralize the danger through house arrest, no decision is needed to tell him that. There are many alternatives through which one can avoid this maze where detention laws become a means of punishment. The suspect spoke in a certain way, it is outrageous and there is no argument about that, but it has nothing to do with detention laws.

[...] We all witnessed various commentators who spoke in a very inciting manner. No Israeli political commentator or journalist was investigated or even questioned about statements they made. The police want to bend detention laws in order to punish someone who made statements that are unpopular in the Israeli consensus."

Hassanin's counsel further said that following a report on Channel 14, a "wave of incitement" began against his client, who received hundreds of hate messages and threats to his safety and his family's safety. "The police can check," he said, "I'm sure none of them were investigated by the police."

Mahajna added that his client's phone is already in police possession, so he cannot make additional publications; that he did not know the channel he was being interviewed by was outlawed; and that he had already been fired from his position as the Bnei Sakhnin team announcer and from his job at Radio Al-Nas.

Judge Torres granted the police request almost in full.

"I have reviewed the investigation material and I believe there is reasonable suspicion that the suspect committed the offenses attributed to him," Judge Torres wrote. "I did not ignore his version in the investigation and yet I still believe, based on the material in the file, that there is, as stated, reasonable suspicion that the suspect committed the offenses attributed to him. I will note that there is no dispute that the suspect did grant an interview to a media channel belonging to Hamas, as well as no dispute about the statements made, and the defense attorney's arguments related to the issue of awareness, as well as the meaning to be attributed to the statements."

According to the judge, he reviewed the investigative actions specified in the confidential report submitted to him and concluded that "some of them justify the continued detention of the suspect." According to the judge, "In light of the investigative actions that need to be performed, the possibility of obstructing them, as well as the grounds of dangerousness, I did not believe that at this time it is possible to suffice with an alternative to detention for the purpose of achieving the detention's objective."

Therefore, Hassanin's detention was extended until Tuesday.