The Commission for Detainees and Ex-Prisoners Affairs said in a report issued on Sunday afternoon that the occupation authorities have recently escalated the pace of attacks against Palestinian journalists and media crews, especially in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem, whose residents are threatened to evacuate their homes in favor of settlers .
The Commission explained that since the beginning of the confrontation and the emergence of marches rejecting the systematic Israeli policy to harass the Palestinian people, specifically in Jerusalem, the occupation authorities have been working to obstruct the work of journalists and prevent them from conveying the truth and exposing the crimes committed by image, sound and word . It indicated that the means of pursuing the occupation for journalists and media crews vary between arrest, summoning, suppression, confiscation of equipment, and direct restriction of freedom of movement and fire, in addition to storming the headquarters and media institutions and confiscating and closing their equipment . She added: "The occupation authorities are not only prosecuting them while performing their journalistic duty, but also deliberately tightening the screws on them after their arrest and imprisonment, by preventing them from seeing their lawyers, depriving them of visiting their families, and imposing financial fines against them . " According to the latest statistics, the number of journalists detained in the occupation prisons has increased to (18), after the arrest of journalist Zina Halawani and photojournalist Wehbe Makiya several days ago, when they were brutally assaulted and dragged by the occupation army, and they are still detained. So far, under the pretext of completing the investigation with them. The commission called on human rights and international organizations to send investigation committees to document violations committed against media crews, and to hold the occupying power accountable for the crimes it committed against them while they were exercising their professional duty.
