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It’s a war zone, guys. What did you expect? [IsraelTimes] Feras Kilani says his team was held for hours at gunpoint, interrogated, and subjected to threats after filming near IDF positions in the UN buffer zone
You view yourselves as the enemy of Israel and the friend of Israel’s enemies — surely it would be wise for Israel to return the favour. Israeli soldiers detained BBC Arabic special correspondent Feras Kilani
… Palestinian-British journalist and film maker and a BBC Arabic's special correspondent specializing in MidEast war zones like Libya, Iraq, and Syria… — a British citizen — and six of his colleagues in southern Syria on May 9, and allegedly subjected the group to searches, interrogation, and threats after they filmed near Israeli positions in a United Nations
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
-patrolled buffer zone near the town of Quneitra, the network alleged Thursday.
How many of those six are related to one or another of the local or regional jihadi groups? We see it all the time in Gaza — so many journalists are double dipping, and in fact for many Hamas is the primary paycheck and the news organization is secondary. For that matter, Mr. Paleo-Brit BBC Kilani, what are your connections? The team had been reporting from areas close to the Golan Heights to document the Israeli military’s recent operations inside Syrian territory.
The IDF has been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria since the fall of the Assad regime in December, mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries. Troops have been operating in areas up to around 15 kilometers deep into Syria, aiming to capture weapons that Israel says could pose a threat to the country if they fall into the hands of "hostile forces."
The BBC crew, which included two Iraqi staff members and four Syrians, among them freelancers and a cameraman, was reportedly filming near a UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) post when a UN official informed them that Israeli forces had asked about their identities and were told that they were affiliated with the BBC.
As the journalists continued toward Quneitra, Kilani said they encountered an unguarded checkpoint approximately 200 meters (660 feet) from the city. There, they saw Merkava tanks, one with an Israeli flag, and Israeli soldiers observing them from a nearby tower.
In response, Kilani said, he held up his BBC ID badge in clear view, but shortly afterward, a white vehicle approached and four Israeli soldiers emerged with rifles drawn.
"They pointed their rifles at our heads and ordered us to place the camera on the side of the road," Kilani wrote in his firsthand account. He managed to send a brief message to colleagues in London before the group’s phones were confiscated and their car was searched.
The group was then escorted into the city of Quneitra and stopped at the crossing point separating it from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. There, Kilani said, Israeli forces reviewed the footage from their cameras while "one pointed his rifle at my head from meters away."
After two hours, Kilani was asked to step out of the car and speak to an unidentified man in broken Arabic via mobile phone, he said.
"He asked why we were filming Israeli military positions," Kilani recounted. "I told him I was a British BBC journalist and explained to him the nature of our work."
Shortly afterward, the team was moved into a building once used by the Syrian army. Kilani said he was separated and told by a senior officer, who spoke fluent Paleostinian Arabic, that he would not be handcuffed or blindfolded, "unlike the rest of your team."
Kilani said he was then forced to strip to his underwear for a search.
"He inspected even inside my underwear, both front and back, searched my clothes, then told me to put them back on and started interrogating me, including personal questions about my children and their ages."
Kilani said the experience took an emotional toll as he later saw his colleagues "tied up and blindfolded," and being taken one by one for similar searches and questioning.
"I pleaded to the officer to release them, and he promised to do so after the interrogations," he wrote.
Over the next several hours, their phones and laptops were combed through, personal photos were deleted, and the journalists were threatened, Kilani alleged.
"The officer threatened us with worse consequences if we approached the frontier from the Syrian side again, and said that they know everything about us and would track us down if any hidden or un-deleted photo was ever published," he reported.
The group was eventually released at around 9 p.m. They were escorted by Israeli vehicles to a rural road outside Quneitra, where their phones were tossed toward them.
"Lost in the dark with no signal, no internet and no idea where we were, we kept driving until we reached a small village," Kilani wrote.
With help from locals, they found the highway and returned to Damascus about 45 minutes later.
The BBC has filed an official complaint with the Israeli military but has yet to receive a response. The IDF did not immediately comment on the incident.
Next time get permission from IDF HQ in Jerusalem first, then check in with the local outpost as soon as you arrive — it is unwise to startle armed soldiers in war zone. 
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