MADA strongly condemns the Israeli occupation forces' attack on two journalists while they were covering a raid of the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem.
(MADA/IFEX) – The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) strongly condemns the Israeli occupation forces’ attack on Quds net news website correspondent and photographer Diala Jwehan and CNN cameraman Kareem Khadir, on the afternoon of 8 February 2010, while they were covering the army’s raiding of the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem. Al-Jazeera English photographer Samir Abu Gharbiya was also injured by a stone thrown by a Palestinian youth.
According to Jwehan, she was covering confrontations in the camp from well outside the camp’s perimeter when the Israeli occupation forces fired a sound grenade directly at her, which exploded at her back. She immediately lost consciousness and was taken to the Almakased Hospital in Jerusalem. Jwehan said that she was suffering from severe pain in her back, a burning sensation in her thigh and swelling in her right hand.
Khadir said that he was covering the confrontations in the camp with other journalists, but, because the Israeli army wanted to prevent them from covering the conflict, they fired a sound bomb on them and he was wounded by shrapnel on his ankle and left hand, and as a result suffered acute pain. Khadir added that, after ten minutes, the soldiers fired rubber bullets at them and one of the bullets rebounded from a wall, hitting his hand and causing it to swell.
Photographer Abu Gharbiya said: “When I was in the field to cover the confrontation in the camp, I received minor injuries to my head from a stone thrown by a Palestinian youth.”
Clashes broke out between the youths in the camp and the occupation forces, resulting in the injuries of many young people. Dozens of people were also arrested at the camp.
MADA reaffirms its previous demands to end all attacks on Palestinian journalists and calls on the international community to exercise real pressure on Israel to stop the attacks, especially in the Jerusalem area.
