Two Palestinian journalists suffered suffocation and were injured by a gas grenade while covering Israeli forces’ raid on Ramallah in the central West Bank on Tuesday. One of them said soldiers obstructed ambulance teams from reaching them for around 45 minutes before they were taken to Yafa Hospital in the nearby city of Beitunia for initial treatment.
Addameer closed and journalists injured
The raid began when large numbers of Israeli army forces, backed by military vehicles, entered Ramallah and stormed the headquarters of the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association. The forces closed the office and confiscated what remained of its contents, including the organisation’s furniture and files.
As the journalists tried to cover and document the raid, the forces pursued them and prevented them from continuing their work, firing rubber bullets, tear-gas grenades and stun grenades at them. The journalists Yusuf Shahada and Mohammed Abu Sarari were injured. Abu Sarari said the forces not only prevented journalists from reporting, but attacked them before firing gas grenades towards them.
He added that Shahada was struck by a gas grenade in the waist area, while he suffered severe suffocation that caused him to lose consciousness. Shahada, for his part, said the forces fired gas grenades and rubber bullets heavily, explaining that he was directly struck by a gas grenade as he withdrew with several colleagues while they were looking for a safe place to shelter.
Shahada added that soldiers prevented the injured journalists from moving and reaching a safe place, and obstructed ambulance teams from reaching them for nearly 45 minutes, despite them having fallen to the ground and needing medical assistance. Ambulance teams later managed to take them to Yafa Hospital in Beitunia, where they received initial treatment.
Journalists continue working despite attacks
Abu Sarari said his health had improved after receiving treatment, stressing that Palestinian journalists would continue carrying out their work and documenting events on the ground despite the attacks and obstacles they face while reporting. Regarding the conditions of Palestinian journalists, Amani Sarahneh, media officer at the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, said Israeli prisons hold 37 journalists.
She added that the latest detainee was Abdul Qader Hailan, who was arrested on Tuesday in Ramallah and had previously served as the media officer at the Addameer Association. Sarahneh said five of the detained journalists were women, adding that they were being held in difficult conditions inside Israeli prisons.
The Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms, known as MADA, documented 48 violations of media freedoms in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during September, attributing 47 of them to the Israeli occupation. Data from the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate indicate that more than 260 journalists, most of them in the Gaza Strip, have been killed since the Israeli war on the territory began three years ago.
