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05/18/2024 11:43:10 am

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Video Reveals Israeli Soldiers Attack Journalists

Late Friday, IDF soldiers attacked two journalists working for AFP confiscated their camera during a West Bank demonstration.

Following the incident, the IDF has suspended one officer and launched an investigation after a video showing IDF soldiers attacking two journalists and destroying their cameras in the West Bank village sprang up.

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The video was taken by a Palestinian video production company, PALMEDIA, while covering the clashes that followed the funeral of Ahmad Khatatbeh's funeral who died after being shot by Israeli Soldiers.

A spokesman for the Israeli army said that "The IDF sees the incident as grave, and in contradiction of its code of ethics and professional standards." He added that a full investigation was underway.

The video showed that soldiers snatched camera from Andrea Bernardi, the Italian AFP journalist, and smashed it on the ground and threw it beside the road.

After some time when the journalists were returning on the checkpoint another soldier picked up the camera from the side of the road and smashed it in the middle of the road. Another soldier followed the journalists and confiscated another camera from them and destroyed it as well.

Moments later when Bernardi returned to the spot to gather evidence he found the broken camera and started filming it when soldiers attacked him and threw him to the ground down while a knee was compressed against his chest.

"He punched my camera and he breaks the microphone, and I didn't have time to hide the camera behind me. The soldier took the camera from my hand and smashed it on the ground," Bernardi stated to CNN.

AFP stated that Bernardi have bruised ribs and an injury to his eye.

As per Haaretz reports, AFP protested to the Israeli military over the incident and said it will file an official complaint.

The Foreign Press Association (FPA) had raised concerns with the IDF on multiple actions but no measures were taken. The FPA implicated that had the incident not been filmed no investigation would have been done.

"Units of the IDF too frequently act with impunity and apparently outside of their orders in direct contradiction with the ideal of high morals Israel's military says it adheres to," the FPA said.


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