Posted: January 18, 2005
Majdi al-Arabid, Channel 10 TV
ATTACKED
Al-Arabid, who was on assignment for Israel's Channel 10 TV, was shot in the stomach near Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip while reporting on IDF operations against Palestinians suspected of firing rockets into Israel. Channel 10 reporter Sholmi Eldar, who witnessed the incident, told CPJ that IDF troops were responsible.
Eldar said that at the time of the incident, he was standing with al-Arabid about 300 meters (990 feet) away from a building surrounded by Israeli tanks and with three Israeli soldiers on its roof. He described the area as an open field where several children were. Eldar said he and al-Arabid had been in the area for about 10 minutes carrying their equipment.
In an attempt to identify themselves as journalists, Eldar told CPJ, al-Arabid waved at the soldiers with his microphone. Minutes later, Eldar said a single shot was fired from the direction of the rooftop, and al-Arabid fell to the ground. Eldar said that while there had been clashes in the general vicinity earlier that day, at the time of the shooting there was no fire in the area.
Al-Arabid was hospitalized. An IDF spokesman said soldiers were unaware that journalists were in the area, and that no fire was directed at reporters, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. IDF officials told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that al-Arabid may have been wounded by Palestinian fire, a charge Eldar rejected.
The IDF said it is investigating the incident, but Eldar, who was filming at the time of the incident, said the army had not yet contacted him about the footage.
AUGUST 14, 2005
Posted August 17, 2005
Mohamed Ouathi, France 3 Television
ABDUCTED
Mohamed Ouathi, a soundman for France 3 Television was forced into a car by three men with rifles as he walked to his hotel with colleagues in Gaza City, according to international press reports.
No group claimed responsibility for the abduction. Ouathi was among the large media contingent covering Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials in Gaza said they were helping to find Ouathi, a French national.
Kidnappings, including those targeting members of the press, have been on the rise in Gaza over the last year. In separate incidents in August gunmen seized five U.N. workers in the Gaza Strip, but released them unharmed the same day. In September 2004, CNN producer Riad Ali was seized at gunpoint from a car in which he was riding with CNN colleagues. He was released the next day unharmed. In May 2004, armed men attempted to bundle New York Times reporter James Bennet into a car while he stood outside a hospital in Gaza during an escalation in the fighting. He resisted his attackers and avoided capture.
AUGUST 14, 2005
Posted: August 18, 2005
Mohamed Ouathi, Daily News
LEGAL ACTION
Ouathi, a television soundman for of France 3 Television, was forced into a car by three men with rifles as he walked to his hotel with colleagues in Gaza City, according to international press reports.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the abduction. Ouathi was among the large media contingent covering Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials in Gaza have said they are helping to find Ouathi, a French national.
Kidnappings, including those targeting members of the press, have been on the rise in Gaza over the last year. In separate incidents earlier this month gunmen seized five U.N. workers in the Gaza Strip, but released them unharmed the same day. In September 2004, CNN producer Riad Ali was seized at gunpoint from a car in which he was riding with CNN colleagues. He was released the next day unharmed.
In May 2004, armed men attempted to bundle New York Times reporter James Bennet into a car while he stood outside a hospital in Gaza during an escalation in the fighting. He resisted his attackers and avoided capture.
AUGUST 22, 2005
Posted: August 26, 2005
Mohamed Ouathi, Daily News
ABDUCTED
Mohammed Ouathi, a soundman for France 3 television was released unharmed, eight days after unidentified gunmen seized him in the Gaza Strip.
No group claimed responsibility for Ouathi's abduction, which triggered a protest by Palestinian and foreign journalists in Gaza.
A Palestinian militant umbrella group called the Popular Resistance Committees said it had helped mediate Ouathi's release but it did not identify the kidnappers.
Ouathi was forced into a car on August 15 by three men with rifles as he walked to his hotel in Gaza City with France 3 colleagues.
Kidnappings, including those targeting members of the media, have been rising in Gaza over the past year. Some Gaza kidnappings appear to be efforts by armed Palestinian factions to embarrass the Palestinian Authority and use hostages as bargaining chips to win the release of imprisoned comrades.
OCTOBER 12, 2005
Posted October 18, 2005
Dion Nissenbaum, Knight Ridder
Adam Pletts, Knight Ridder
ABDUCTED
Nissenbaum, a U.S. reporter for the Knight Ridder newspaper chain, and Pletts, a British freelance photographer working for the news organization, were held for several hours and released unharmed in the Gaza Strip. The abductions were part of an alarming spate of kidnappings of foreign journalists in Gaza, CPJ research shows.
"A car followed our vehicle for three or four minutes and then stopped us. Six gunmen pointed their weapons and said 'We want the foreigners,' " Ziad Abu Mustafa, a Palestinian interpreter who was with the journalists, told Reuters. He said the captors ordered him to stay behind as they drove off with the two journalists, heading toward the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
Palestinian security officials said the men were kidnapped by renegade members of the ruling Fatah party, CPJ sources said. They said Fatah officials and Palestinian security officers negotiated their release.<