LONDON: Media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists has renewed its plea to the Israeli military to respect the work of journalists and called for an independent investigation into an incident involving an Al-Araby TV crew and Israel Defense Forces.
According to the Qatari network, on July 3, TV reporter Amid Shehadeh and camera operator Rabi Munir had their filming equipment destroyed.
CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna condemned the IDF’s actions, saying: “The Israeli military’s destruction of Al-Araby TV’s news equipment while the broadcaster’s journalists hid in fear shows how the military has continued to imperil reporting on its actions.”
He also urged the IDF to halt attacks on journalists, and investigate those responsible for the incident.
According to a statement posted to Twitter by Al-Araby TV, the crew were covering an Israeli military operation against militants in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank when an IDF vehicle shot at their equipment, destroying a transmitter and knocking a camera off a tripod.
Shehadeh and Munir sought refuge in a nearby house, alongside two Turkish photographers from the Anadolu Agency and a third from Ruptly, a Russian state-owned video news agency based in Germany.
The journalists remained trapped until the Red Cross and Red Crescent escorted them to safety.
Footage of the incident, published by the news website The New Arab, captured the moment when shots were fired and the crew’s transmitter burst into flames.
In its statement, Al-Araby TV expressed outrage at the attack, labeling it a “blatant targeting of journalist crews” and a “clear violation of international human rights norms and standards that guarantee the safety of journalists.”
The IDF’s two-day assault, part of a series of military incursions into Jenin following attacks by Palestinian militants, forced thousands of people to flee their homes, and left 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier dead.
In a rare condemnation of Israel, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced on Thursday the country’s excessive use of force in its largest military operation in two decades and called for Israel “to abide by its obligations under international law.”
In a similar incident that raised concerns about the actions of the Israeli military, Hazem Nasser, a camera operator for Jordan’s Al-Ghad TV, was taken to the hospital with serious injuries after being shot by Israeli forces while reporting on a raid in Jenin on June 19, according to AFP.
In a separate episode on June 8, two photojournalists, Momen Somrain and Rabi Al-Munir, were shot with rubber bullets by IDF soldiers while reporting on the demolition of a terrorism suspect’s house in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
