Israeli occupation forces raided 10 Palestinian media offices in the occupied West Bank on 18 October, arresting several media workers, confiscating media production equipment, welding shut building doors and closing down production facilities for six months.
Carried out simultaneously in Ramallah, Nablus, Bethlehem and Hebron, the operations were coordinated by the Israeli military and Shin Bet (the secret police), who accused the targeted news agencies of “incitement”.
The raids come one month after Israel closed Palestinian radio station Manabar al-Hurriya in Hebron for six months, again on the grounds of incitement. Israel also targeted Palestinian media outlets in July, confiscating computers, hard drives and camera equipment.
The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) condemned the latest raids and arrests, noting that among those outlets targeted were three media production companies that provide “media services to numerous TV channels”, including Palestinian, Arabic and foreign media.
Read the full article by Kim Bullimore at Red Flag.