The Committee to Protect Journalists says Israel is holding a journalist for the al-Jazeera television network on charges he has ties to the militant group Hamas.

The program coordinator for the rights group's Middle East and North Africa division told VOA that al-Jazeera journalist Samer Allawi appeared before an Israeli military judge Tuesday and was told of the accusations.

Al-Jazeera's Arabic-language network says Allawi is its Kabul bureau chief and that Israeli authorities arrested him on August 10 as he was trying to cross into Jordan. It says Allawi had been vacationing at his home village of Sebastia in the Israeli-occupied West Bank prior to his arrest.

The journalist's family told his employer that Israel informed them his arrest was “security-related.”

There was no immediate comment from Israeli authorities on the matter.

Allawi carries a Jordanian passport.

Hamas is a Palestinian organization that seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. The United States and the European Union, as well as Israel, consider Hamas a terrorist organization.