WEST BANK (Dispatches) –
Zionist regime authorities targeted 215 Palestinian journalists in the occupied West Bank and Al-Quds in 2022, the Journalist Support Committee (JSC) revealed.
The Beirut-based JSC published the figures to mark the National Day for the Injured Palestinian “Palestinian journalists endure a dangerous work environment as they are always subject to the Israeli occupation’s attacks and violations,” the JSC said.
“The Israeli occupation uses internationally-banned arms in its daily aggression on journalists.”
According to the JSC, the occupation forces do not care about the Palestinian journalists as they open fire at them even when they are visibly wearing bullet-proof press vests.
May saw the highest number of injuries among journalists, the JSC said, with 54 wounded by occupation forces in the occupied West Bank and Al-Quds, adding that they are being targeted in order to stop them documenting the Zionist regime’s crimes.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian rights group says the occupying regime has demolished or closed over 180 Palestinian facilities across the occupied West Bank and Al-Quds since February.
The SHAMS Human Rights and Democracy Media Center said in its monthly report on Monday that at least nine Palestinians were forced to demolish their own facilities under the pretext of being built without a so-called permit, which is almost impossible to obtain.
According to the report, the family house of martyr Hussein Qaraqe, who was killed by Zionist troops last month, was sealed as part of Israel’s collective punishment policy against those who carry out attacks against regime forces.
Along the same line, bulldozers escorted by Israeli soldiers also demolished two Palestinian houses in Al-Khalil and Al-Quds and sealed another in the holy city.
The regime routinely demolishes Palestinian houses in the West Bank and East Al-Quds.
The Zionist regime has already occupied thousands of dunums of Palestinian agricultural land to construct and expand settler units across the West Bank.
The regime also plans to force out Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in an attempt to replace them with settlers.
More than 600,000 Zionists live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Al-Quds. All the settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East Al-Quds as its capital.