Gaza based New Yorker Writer Mosab Abu Toha was arrested by Israeli security forces for unspecified reasons. The Israeli government has yet to comment on the matter, but New Yorker editor David Remnick said that Toha was arrested. Meanwhile, NBC News has cut ties with Jerusalem based Mirvat al-Azzeh after she made public posts in praise of Hamas terrorism and its barbaric October 7 attack.
Mirvat al-Azzeh, 45, was arrested in Israel last week on suspicion of “inciting terrorism and identifying with a terrorist organization.”
The Jerusalem Post reported that prosecutors told a court, “These are very serious offenses during a time of declared war when the respondent lives and makes a living in the same country that is under attack and yet chooses to incite and glorify the horrible acts committed against civilians.”
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On October 7, Hamas terrorists massacred more than 1,200 innocent Israeli civilians, including entire families. People, including babies, were burned alive. And Hamas continues to hold more than 240 people hostage in Gaza, including non-Israeli foreign nationals.
“The investigation of Ms. Azza is unrelated to NBC News,” NBC News stated. “It is based on her personal Facebook posts that predate her time with us as a freelancer. We were not aware of those posts before we engaged Ms. Azza four weeks ago. She will not be contributing to our coverage going forward.”
“Before we recently retained Marwat Azza for services as a freelance producer, we were not aware of her personal social media activity that provided the basis for the Israeli investigation,” an NBC spokesperson told the New York Post.
As for Mosab Abu Toha, he contributes essays to the New Yorker. A review of his social media does not show any posts made since the war in Gaza began on October 7. But his brother Hamza posted on Twitter Monday, “the army (IDF) arrested my brother Musab, and we know nothing about him, knowing that the American embassy sent him and his family to travel through the Rafah crossing.”
According to his bio, Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, short story writer, and essayist from Gaza. Abu Toha is the author of Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza (2022, City Lights)