For more than two years, Palestinian journalist Mohammed Arab disappeared from public view inside Israel’s prison system.
On Monday, an image emerged.
Arab appeared via video link during a hearing before the Israeli Supreme Court, his face visibly changed from the photographs taken before his detention in March 2024.
The image, reportedly the first of the journalist to emerge from Israeli detention, quickly circulated among Palestinian journalists and activists, many of whom placed it alongside older photographs of Arab.
The contrast became the story.
Mohammed Arab was detained while working as a journalist during the Israeli military’s second raid on Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Medical Complex in March 2024. He has remained imprisoned ever since, separated from his family and profession.
According to his lawyers, he has been detained for more than two years without trial.
There is another reason the photograph carries particular significance.
‘Can You Describe My Face?’
Attorney Khaled Mahajna, who has followed Mohammed Arab’s case throughout his detention, previously recounted an extraordinary question the journalist asked him during one of their meetings.
“I want to see what I look like,” Mohammed Arab reportedly told him. “Can you describe my face to me?”
According to Mahajna, Mohammed Arab had been deprived of the ability to see himself in a mirror during his imprisonment.
Now, for the first time in more than two years, the outside world could see him.
“This is how journalist Mohammed Arab appeared today during the Supreme Court hearing, with features different from how he looked before his arrest,” Mahajna wrote, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.
“For more than two years, I have followed his case, and every time I see him I notice another change in his features,” the lawyer added.
Despite his condition, Mahajna said Arab’s morale remained high.
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