***

Original article in German

While not clear from this article, the German one mentions

According to the team, the soldiers were probably settlers from the area who have now been called up as reservists. They were travelling in a private vehicle and were wearing civilian headgear.

  • MaggiWuerze@feddit.de
    2·
    8 months ago

    Here’s OPs article, no 403 for me:

    German journalists detained by Israeli soldiers: ‘Held us at gunpoint and asked if we were Jewish’ DPA, Ido David Cohen 3 - 4 minutes

    Israeli soldiers in the West Bank threatened and detained a team of journalists from the German public broadcaster ARD, the network reported on Sunday evening.

    ARD correspondent Jan-Christoph Kitzler was on his way back from an interview, accompanied by a Palestinian as well as a German network employee, when they were stopped by Israeli soldiers south of Hebron, according to ARD.

    The soldiers behaved very aggressively towards the journalists and weapons were aimed into the team’s vehicle on several occasions, ARD said.

    Israeli army reservist killed in West Bank, settlers torch cars in revenge Israeli far-right lawmaker calls to halt West Bank olive harvest Amid the mourning, Israel’s settlement enterprise celebrates a great victory

    A German Foreign Office spokeswoman on Monday demanded that Israeli forces grant press representatives free access for their reporting.

    “In such a tense situation as we currently find ourselves, freedom of the press is of course an extremely valuable asset,” she said on Monday in response to the incident.

    IDF soldiers deep inside the Gaza Strip, on Sunday. IDF soldiers deep inside the Gaza Strip, on Sunday.Credit: IDF Spokesperson

    Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), the Bavarian regional ARD station that operates the network’s Tel Aviv studio, described the incident as an attack on press freedom.

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    According to the report, the team of ARD journalists were on their way to report on violence by radical Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.

    “The soldiers threatened us with their weapons and asked us if we were Jewish. Our colleague was insulted as a traitor,” said Kitzler, the ARD correspondent. He said the situation only eased after more than an hour, once other soldiers and police had been summoned.

    Kitzler posted a photo of one of the soldiers with the face blurred out on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, and wrote that “That’s what might happen these days when one wants to report about the sharp increase in settler violence in the occupied West Bank in the shadow of the war in Gaza. Many of the soldiers there are themselves settlers. Journalists are likely not welcome.”

    “The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] apologizes for any inconvenience caused,” the Israeli army told dpa on Monday in response to questions about the incident. “The IDF will continue to act in order to ensure the freedom of the press in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] even during the war.”

    The IDF also said that “the soldiers’ actions were examined and protocols were reiterated,” although the statement did not specify whether the IDF took issue with those actions or whether protocols were violated.

    The Foreign Press Association in Israel in late October called on the Israeli military to ensure the safety of journalists and complained about two incidents in the West Bank in which soldiers had harassed reporters, including another incident in which ARD journalists were detained for two hours by soldiers while reporting on settler violence near Qawawis.

    “This is the second incident in a week for us. Our team clearly identified itself as accredited press representatives and was far away from military security areas,” said the head of the ARD’s studio in Tel Aviv, Christian Limpert. “We cannot accept the actions of the Israeli military.”