Al-Araby TV journalist shot, wounded by Israeli forces while covering West Bank raid

Israeli forces have shot and wounded an Al-Araby TV cameraman in Qabatiya, occupied West Bank, while covering an Israeli raid which took place late on Tuesday.

Rabie Munir sustained an injury in his abdomen after being targeted by live Israeli gunfire alongside other journalists while reporting on the incursion, The New Arab’s Arabic-language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed said.

Munir was subsequently transferred to a hospital for treatment, with his condition described as stable, Al-Araby said.

At least five Palestinian men were killed in the Israeli incursion in and around Qabatiya, located south of Jenin, amid an intense raid in the West Bank.

Casualties were also reported in Tamoun, south of Tubas.

Several Al-Araby staff members have been injured or detained by Israeli forces in Gaza and the West Bank, amid Tel Aviv’s military onslaught in the besieged enclave and intensified raids in the occupied territory.

In March this year, journalist Mohamed Arab was detained at the Al-Shifa Hospital, one of the most heavily-targeted medical facilities in Gaza.

In December last year, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Gaza bureau chief Diaa Al-Kahlout was rounded-up at gunpoint along other Palestinian men in Beit Lahia. Kahlout was forcibly removed from his home, stripped to his underwear, before being detained in an Israeli detention centre where he was tortured for a prolonged period of time.

In January, Al-Araby TV's Gaza corresponded Ahmed Al-Batta's mother, sister, and children in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis.

Israel has been accused of deliberately targeting journalists in both Gaza, the West Bank and southern Lebanon, amid the ongoing violence in all territories.

As of Monday, at least 137 journalists have been killed in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Israel, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The majority of those casualties have been Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Since the start of Israel’s war in the coastal enclave, at least 43,391 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, 2023.

Israel’s intensified violence in the West Bank has killed at least 754 Palestinians since the start of Gaza’s war, including children and journalists. according to the Ramallah-based health ministry. At least 6,300 have also been wounded.