Four Palestinian journalists stripped, assaulted by Israeli soldiers

Israeli soldiers assaulted four Palestinian journalists and forced them to strip naked at a checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday, according to news reports cited by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Two of the journalists worked for Reuters, and two for local Palestinian news outlets, the reports added.

Israeli soldiers punched the two Reuters cameramen, Yousri Al Jamal and Ma'amoun Wazwaz, and forced them to strip in the street, before letting off a tear gas canister in front of them, leaving one of them needing hospital treatment, the news agency said,

Soldiers also stopped freelance journalist Mohamed al-Sagheer, and Akram al-Natsha, a reporter for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Quds TV, as they were reportedly driving to cover a story of a Palestinian teenager shot dead by an Israeli border guard.

Their car was clearly marked 'TV' and they were both wearing blue flak jackets with 'Press' emblazoned on the front. Wazwaz told the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedom, or MADA, that about 10 soldiers were ordered the journalists out of the car.

“He said the soldiers punched them, beat them with their guns, and forced all of them to strip down to their underwear and kneel on the road with their hands behind their heads. The soldiers confiscated two gas masks from the journalists' car, as a well as a video camera, fired tear gas at them, and left the scene in an Israel Defense Forces patrol car,” CPJ reported, citing MADA.

Wazwaz was overcome by the fumes and was taken to hospital by ambulance. He was released later the same night.

The Israeli soldiers took two gas masks and a video camera from their car. The undamaged camera was later found abandoned further up the road.

"These actions by members of the IDF are completely unacceptable and require immediate action," said Sherif Mansour, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "The IDF leadership must hold its troops accountable for these abuses and end its tolerance of mistreatment of journalists."

Al Jamal and Wazwaz told Reuters that the soldiers did not allow them to show their official press identifications.

Reuters reported that the soldiers accused the cameramen of working for B'Tsalem, an Israeli human rights group that distributes video cameras to Palestinians to document human rights violations in the West Bank.

Israel's military said on Thursday it took the allegations seriously, but offered no explanation for the assault that occurred on Wednesday evening in the heart of Hebron.

"The regional brigade commander was ordered to open an investigation," Israeli Defense Forces spokeswoman Avital Leibovich said in an email. No further information will be provided until the investigation is complete.