Israeli settlers attacked a CNN information crew over the weekend because it traveled to the Palestinian city of Sinjil within the West Financial institution to report on the dying of a US citizen, based on the community’s Jerusalem-based correspondent Jeremy Diamond.
Diamond, a veteran journalist and former CNN White Home correspondent, stated he and his crew had been focused whereas on task investigating the dying of 20-year-old Florida native Saif al-Din Kamil Abdul Karim Musalat.
Musalat was visiting household in Sinjil when he was allegedly overwhelmed by Israeli settlers. His family say settlers additionally blocked ambulances from reaching him as he lay dying from his accidents.
“As we were covering this story, my team & I were attacked by Israeli settlers. The back window of our vehicle was smashed, but we managed to escape unharmed,” Diamond wrote Monday evening in a publish on X.
He shared a picture of the broken automobile, including: “This is just a sliver of the reality many Palestinians face in the West Bank amid rising settler violence.”
A CNN spokesperson declined to remark. The Submit has sought remark from the Israeli authorities.
The dying of a US nationwide within the West Financial institution prompted the Trump administration’s prime envoy in Israel to ask the federal government to analyze.
“I have asked @Israel to aggressively investigate the murder of Saif Mussallet, an American citizen who was visiting family in Sinjil when he was beaten to death,” US Ambassador Mike Huckabee wrote on X.
“There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act. Saif was just 20 yrs old.”
The assault on Diamond’s staff comes amid a documented rise in violence in opposition to journalists working within the West Financial institution.
The Jerusalem-based Overseas Press Affiliation (FPA), which represents 400 media professionals masking Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, issued an announcement Tuesday condemning the incident.
“This is the second settler attack on foreign journalists in Sinjil this month,” the FPA stated.
“On July 4, a Deutsche Welle team was chased by settlers while filming. A window of DW’s car was smashed with stones, and its bodywork dented. In each of these incidents, settlers struck in broad daylight. Yet so far, we are unaware of any arrests being made.”
The affiliation stated the state of affairs displays a broader sample of hostility and violence confronted by journalists, notably Palestinians, within the area.
“This is taking place at a time when our Palestinian colleagues routinely face threats, intimidation and violence at the hands of settlers and security forces, while the foreign press is routinely vilified by some Israeli public figures,” the FPA stated.
Earlier than the CNN crew was attacked, the Brussels-based Worldwide Federation of Journalists (IFJ) additionally issued an announcement on July 8 reporting an increase in violence in opposition to each Palestinian and worldwide journalists by Israeli settlers and troopers.
One of many instances cited by the IFJ concerned Palestinian journalist Issam al-Rimawi, who was attacked within the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah. Al-Rimawi was overwhelmed so severely by settlers that he misplaced consciousness.
In one other incident in Jenin on Could 28, Israeli troopers fired warning pictures close to a automobile clearly marked “press” that was carrying French journalist Amira Souilem of France 24 and Radio France Internationale, Palestinian journalist Mohammed Mansour and three different Palestinian journalists.
On June 2, a bunch of worldwide reporters trying to go to Masafer Yatta — an space within the southern West Financial institution featured within the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land” — was stopped by masked Israeli troopers.
The journalists had been invited by the movie’s co-directors, Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra, who later documented the obstruction by the military.
In line with the FPA, the Israeli army has additionally prevented journalists from getting into refugee camps within the northern West Financial institution, which the FPA says have seen tens of hundreds of Palestinians expelled.
“These phenomena have led to a worrying and rapid shrinking of the space and freedom to report on Palestinian lives,” the FPA stated in its assertion. “We call on Israeli authorities to uphold the country’s stated commitment to freedom of the press by ensuring the safety of journalists and prosecuting, not protecting, their assailants.”
Entry to Gaza stays severely restricted. Worldwide journalists are presently banned from getting into the territory until as a part of a uncommon embed with the Israeli army.
In early June, greater than 200 press freedom organizations and international newsrooms issued an open letter demanding that overseas journalists be granted “immediate, independent and unrestricted” entry to the Gaza Strip.
