Anadolu news agency reported on Sunday, citing the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), that Israeli forces and illegal settlers committed 57 violations and assaults against journalists in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in November.
The syndicate said these violations reflected “a continued systematic escalation aimed at preventing media crew members from fulfilling their professional duties.”
The group’s Press Freedom Committee’s monthly report said the violations included a “dangerous pattern that directly targets the work of journalism and puts the lives of journalists at risk.”
According to reports, two journalists from Tulkarem and Gaza were injured by live and plastic bullets while reporting on the ground.
The report said illegal Israeli settlers played a central role in the severe violence witnessed in various parts of the West Bank.
They committed 22 assaults against journalists, including disrupting interviews, chasing journalists, beating them with sticks, throwing stones, and brandishing weapons.
The report also recorded 16 cases of detention and obstruction of journalists’ activities, six cases of direct physical assault, four cases of confiscation of equipment and forced deletion of materials, and two cases of weapons being pointed directly at journalists.
Mohammed al-Raham, chairman of the PJS’s Press Freedom Committee, said the numbers “reflect a clear policy aimed at silencing Palestinian journalists.”
Since October 2023, Israel has killed more than 70,000 people (mostly women and children) and injured nearly 171,000 in the two-year war in the Gaza Strip, which ended under the October 10 cease-fire agreement.
At least 1,088 Palestinians have been killed and 10,700 injured in attacks by the military and illegal Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank since October 2023. Additionally, more than 20,500 people were arrested.