At least two Palestinian journalists have been injured after Israeli forces attacked members of the press in the West Bank amid the ongoing offensive in the occupied territory.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that Israeli troops opened fire on a group of journalists near the Cinema Roundabout in the center of Jenin on Monday as they were covering an Israeli military raid in the area.
Palestinian medical sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two journalists sustained gunshot wounds after they were struck by live bullets. Israeli military vehicles also attempted to run over a group of journalists while they were reporting on the ongoing aggression against Jenin and its refugee camp.
Moreover, Israeli troops assaulted Mohammed Abu Zeid, a photographer for the WAFA news agency, in the central West Bank city of Ramallah, and seized his camera’s memory.
Abu Zeid said Israeli troops attacked him, hit him with rifle butts, detained him for more than half an hour, and seized his camera’s memory card while he was covering the Israeli military incursion into the al-Muhalhal area in the town of Ni’lin, located 17 kilometers (11 miles) west of Ramallah.
Journalists in the West Bank have faced the risks of covering increased Israeli raids into Palestinian communities that often lead to bloody clashes with resistance fighters.
Israeli forces have also arrested journalists “for alleged incitement via the media… and social networks”, according to the advocacy group Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.
“Tools of freedom of opinion and expression… have become tools of targeting journalists and Palestinians in general,” it said.
Back in July, Palestinian photojournalist Moath Amarneh was arrested by Israeli forces in the West Bank and thrown into prison. Amarneh spent nearly nine months behind bars until his release on July 9, though he was never charged with an offense or put on trial.
The 37-year-old freelancer was placed under “administrative detention”, which allows for suspects to be held without charge for renewable periods of up to six months.
Last November, West Bank freelance journalist Somaya Jawabreh was arrested for alleged incitement to violence in a series of online posts. The journalist was released after a week, because she was seven months pregnant, and placed under house arrest.
She was also ordered to pay a 50,000-shekel bail, barred from speaking to the media and forbidden from owning or using a mobile phone as well as the internet. “She lost her job due to all these conditions,” her husband, journalist Tariq Youssef, said. “Her professional future is over.”
Moreover, Moussab Shawar, a photojournalist who contributes to the AFP news agency, was detained in November with two colleagues in the southern West Bank for meeting with Palestinian prisoners released by Israel during a Gaza ceasefire.
At an Israeli checkpoint, “the vehicle was seized and searched, IDs checked, phones confiscated,” 33-year-old Shawar said. He said they were “handcuffed with zip ties,” blindfolded, and released seven hours later.
