Israeli Soldiers Attack Reuters Cameramen in Hebron

Military Vows Investigation After Checkpoint Attack

The Israeli military is promising an investigation today after soldiers near a checkpoint in downtown Hebron attacked a pair of Reuters cameramen, beating them with their rifles before stripping them to their underwear and detonating a tear gas canister in front of them. The incident took place Wednesday night.

The cameramen were in a car marked as belonging to Reuters and both were wearing flak jackets with “Press” written on them. They were heading to the checkpoint where a Palestinian boy with a toy gun had been slain earlier yesterday.

The soldiers that captured the Reuters cameramen accused them on not being members of a real media outlet, and claimed that they suspected them of working for B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group which is documenting abuses in the occupied West Bank.

The soldiers didn’t give the two a chance to present their press credentials and instead seized their cameras and beat them. One of the two cameramen had to be hospitalized. B’Tselem has reportedly given cameras to Palestinian civilians in the past to document military abuses, but needless to say this is not legally grounds to attack those civilians in the first place.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.