By Jonah Valdez

   Although an Israeli judge granted his release from police custody, he was ordered to remain in the country until October 20, allowing investigators more time to bring additional allegations or to further interrogate Loffredo, according to Lea Tsemel, a renowned Israeli civil rights attorney who represented Loffredo.

   Police obtained Loffredo’s phone and were able to jailbreak the device and plan to search it for potential evidence, according to Israeli media.

   Israeli police had held Loffredo, an independent journalist from New York, on suspicion of assisting an enemy in war, a serious allegation that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment or death, Tsemel said.

   The allegations stem from his reporting for American media outlet The Grayzone, which showed the locations of several Iranian missiles launched at military targets inside Israel earlier this month, including footage near Nevatim, an Israeli air base, and the Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv, Tsemel said.

   Though the same targets were featured in broadcasts by other media outlets, Israeli authorities tried to argue that Loffredo’s reporting allowed Iran to study future targets.

   “He didn’t do anything original -he took it from different sources that were published already, all over, by Israeli and foreign journalists,” Tsemel told The Intercept, who decried the government’s attempts to charge Loffredo as “nonsense.”

   Loffredo’s detainment, which drew little attention from Western media, comes amid an unprecedented year of Israel targeting journalists who are covering its war in Gaza.

   At least 126 journalists have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. At least five of those journalists were specifically targeted by Israel for their work, CPJ said, as it investigates the killing of 10 others. And in the West Bank, CPJ documented 69 journalist arrests during the war, with 43 remaining in Israeli custody.

   Last month, an Israeli lawmaker requested Israeli police charge the head of human rights group B’Tselem, Yuli Novak, with the same charge aimed at Loffredo, after Novak provided an expert review before the United Nations Security Council.

   Local Israeli media also faced censorship over coverage of the Iranian missile attack. An Israel Defense Forces censor had barred Israeli media from publishing the exact locations of missile impacts, according to The Times of Israel.

   Prior to Loffredo’s release, The Grayzone released a statement on X, standing by his reporting. The claim that Loffredo and The Grayzone represent Israel’s enemy in wartime merely suggests that the Israeli government views the American people and free press as a legitimate target,” the statement read. “We represent no one else.”

   The statement also called on the US State Department to come to Loffredo’s defense, saying that the US “has an obligation to defend its journalists who are merely adhering to their ethical obligation to inform the public of pertinent facts.” 

   Before Loffredo’s release, a State Department spokesperson told The Intercept it was “aware of reports of a US citizen arrested in Israel and are monitoring the situation.” “We have no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens abroad,” the spokesperson said.