Israeli forces detain 18 Palestinian journalists: Commission

RAMALLAH, May 31  -- The Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said the Israeli occupation forces are detaining 18 Palestinian journalists in their prisons, Jordan News Agency (Petra) reported.

The occupation forces recently arrested journalist Zaina Halawani and photojournalist Wehbe Makiya. They were brutally assaulted and still detained under the pretext of completing the investigation with them, the commission said Sunday in a statement.

It added the occupation authorities have recently escalated their attacks against Palestinian journalists and media crews, especially in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in the occupied Jerusalem.

The commission pointed out that since the start of marches condemning the systematic Israeli policies to harass the Palestinian people, specifically in Jerusalem, the occupation authorities have obstructed the work of journalists and prevented them from conveying the truth and exposing the crimes committed with photos, sound and word.

It noted that the occupation ways of harassing journalists and media crews vary between arrest, summoning, suppression, seizing equipment, restricting freedom of movement and directly firing at them, in addition to storming media headquarters and institutions and seizing their equipment and closing them.

The commission called on human rights and international organisations to dispatch commissions of inquiry to document violations committed against media crews, and to hold the occupying power accountable for the crimes it committed against journalists exercising their professional duty.

-- BERNAMA