Israel on Sunday released a correspondent in the Golan Heights for Iran’s Arabic-language state television after four days of detention, police said.  

Bassam al-Safadi, a journalist for the Al-Alam news channel, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of “supporting a terrorist organisation and incitement to violence and terrorism,” police said.

A court in Nazareth in northern Israel extended his remand until Sunday, when he was released “under limitations, including a five-day house arrest,” police said.

In an interview with Beirut-based Al-Alam on Sunday, Safadi said he was “accused of incitement to terrorism, supporting terror organisations and standing behind terror organizations.”

The 43-year-old was described by police as Arab Israeli.

Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, backs numerous Islamist terror groups committed to the State of Israel’s destruction.

Tehran is also the closest ally of Syria, which is technically at war with Israel, and a sworn enemy of the Jewish state.  

Hussein Mortada, head of Al-Alam’s office in Syria, said on Wednesday that the arrest was part of a “systematic campaign” by Israel against the media – an ironic claim given that no Israeli news channels are even permitted to operate out of Iran.

AFP contributed to this report.