|
Journalists slam use of press vehicle by Gaza terrorists
GAZA CITY - The Palestinian journalists union on Sunday slammed terrorists militants for using a jeep that allegedly had press insignia on it during a cross-border raid into Israel. In the first such operation in nearly a year, Gaza-based terrorists militants drove a jeep to the border fence between the coastal strip and Israel, breached it and attacked an army post on the other side. The post was unmanned at the time.
Exchanges of fire with troops sent to the scene left one terrorists= militant dead in the operation carried out by the radical Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, loosely affiliated with ineffectual Palestinian president Mahmud Abbass Fatah party.
The Israeli army, which did not report any injuries, said the white jeep used in the raid was plastered with TV and Press insignia, and several Israeli dailies published photos of the vehicle.
| They use ambulances to haul ammo, so this isn't a stretch. |
In a statement, the union said: Using a car with press insignia puts in danger journalists lives and gives an excuse to occupation forces to target and kill journalists.
The journalists union calls on all Palestinian factions and their armed wings to keep journalists out of the conflict, be it with Israeli occupation forces or internal, the union said in a statement. We reject the use and the implication of journalists in all conflicts and we demand that everyone stop using such means or the word press in all actions that dont have anything to do with journalism.
These methods undermine the journalists freedom to work.
| "And we could get whacked by the Jooooz, so cut it out!" |
Israels foreign press association also blasted the use of the jeep as a grave development, and condemned those that carried it out.
But a spokesman for the Al Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihads terrorist armed wing, denied the charges. The Al Quds Brigades used an armoured jeep resembling military armoured jeeps used by the Zionist intelligence services, Abu Ahmed told AFP.
He accused the Israeli army of placing the press markings on the vehicle that the militants abandoned at the border fence before allowing photographers access to the site.
Posted by: Steve White 2007-06-11 |
