The United States said on Monday (18) that it was “deeply concerned” about the attack by Israeli police officers on a photographer from the Turkish Anadolu Agency who tried to photograph Palestinians praying in Israeliannexed East Jerusalem on Thursday.
According to the Turkish news agency, the agents “first pointed their weapons at Alkharouf, who was covering the news, and then threw him to the ground, punched and kicked him.” A camera assistant was also attacked.
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Palestinian Mustafa Alkharouf was hospitalized for injuries sustained more than two months after the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
Israeli police said they immediately suspended the officers involved.
Asked what happened, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said: “We are deeply concerned by the disturbing images of violence against a journalist seen in these videos.”
According to him, it is important “that the video is investigated and, if the facts confirm it, the people involved are held accountable.”
The New Yorkbased Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called the incident part of a “pattern” of attacks by the Israeli military and settlers.
Miller disputed that claim: “We have seen no evidence that Israel is attacking journalists,” he told the press.
According to CPJ, more than 60 journalists and media workers have died since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, which was sparked by the Palestinian group's deadly attack on Israeli territory on October 7.
On Friday, an Al Jazeera journalist died and another was injured in an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip, the Qatari broadcaster reported.
On October 13, a bomb attack in southern Lebanon killed a Portal journalist and injured six others, including two from AFP. An AFP investigation attributed the cause to an Israeli tank shell.
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