Israeli Troops Assault on Journalists

Israeli Troops Assault on Journalists

NABLUS, Palestine -- Israeli occupation forces assaulted Tuesday night on a number of journalists and held others under curfew in separate incidents in the West Bank.

Majdy Mohammad,23, of Nablus city, Associated Press News Agency’s cameraman, has been injured with bruises in his face after being beaten severely by Israeli soldiers in the Nablus’s village of Salem, local sources said.

Eyewitnesses accounted that Mohammad was hospitalized in a local clinic after Israeli troops have denied access of ambulances to the scene for providing aid.

Meanwhile, Mohhamd Alsayied of the Ramallah city, Arab News Network (ANN) TV’s correspondent has been hit by the Israeli soldiers’ rifle buts after having been stopped at the Biet Eil checkpoint, east of Ramallah, a press release issued by the Arab TV confirmed.

The statement said that Alsayied has sustained bruises in different parts of his body as a result of the Israeli troops assault.

ANN denounced such an ‘ assault’, stressing that Alsayied has been frequently exposed to similar Israeli attacks, particularly during a protest in Bier Ziet town, near Ramallah some three years ago, where he survived an Israeli bullet.

ANN called for an immediate investigation into the incident , which “violates freedom of Palestinian press”.

In the meantime, Israeli occupation forces confined Aljazeera Satellite Channel staff in the West Bank city of Ramallah, in their office located in the heart of Ramallah after these troops had invaded the city abruptly yesterday evening.

Wae’l Abu Daqqa, Palestine’s Bureau Chief of Aljazeera, was quoted as saying that the Israeli soldiers prevented the TV’s staff from moving out of the office and shooting the troops invasion and imposition of curfew in the city.

Scores of Israeli tanks and armored vehicles invaded yesterday many parts of Ramallah and imposed curfew, confining tens of thousands of inhabitants to their houses for about four hours, before they pulled out.

Silencing the press has been an Israeli practice since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada on September 2000, as at least 8 journalists have been killed and 163 others have been wounded by the Israeli troops.

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