In an effort to conceal its atrocities in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, "Israel" is deliberately targeting and killing journalists working to document Israeli brutality against the Palestinian people.

To this end, Israeli occupation forces detained a film crew from the German broadcaster ARD in the occupied West Bank and used firearms to intimidate other journalists, as reported by Tagesschau, an entity within the ARD media group.

The journalists were arrested following their documentation of acts of violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers, as per the report.

In its report, Tagesschau stressed that ARD perceives the assault of a media staff member as a direct assault on freedom of the press.

"Soldiers threatened us with guns and asked if we were Jews. Our colleague was called a traitor … Journalists who want to cover events taking place in the West Bank in the shadow of the war in the Gaza Strip are apparently not allowed to do so," ARD correspondent Jan-Christoph Kitzler said.

ARD  has committed to retaining legal counsel to assess the legal implications of this incident, the report said.

In an effort to conceal its atrocities in #Gaza, "Israel" deliberately targets and kills journalists exposing its massacres against the #Palestinian people.#GazaGenocide pic.twitter.com/7gp3xa1Yrf

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) November 4, 2023

It is worth noting that even journalists are not spared Israeli brutality amid relentless Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, with a tragic count of 46 killed since October 7, as per the Government Media Office in Gaza. Journalists' bullet-proof vests and the vehicles are all marked 'press' to indicate they are journalists - protected under international law, but that never stopped "Israel" from targeting them. 

Read next: IOF raid house of Al Mayadeen's bureau director in occupied Palestine

It should be noted that the IOF raided several cities and towns in the occupied West Bank on Sunday overnight, launching a wide-scale arrest campaign against Palestinians.

Among the targeted areas was the Shuafat camp in northern occupied al-Quds, where numerous Palestinians were arrested. Local reports indicate that the IOF used military-grade helicopters in their infiltration of the camp.

The Israeli occupation also raided Nilin, a Palestinian town to the northwest of Ramallah, as well as the small town of Khirbat al-Nabi Elias located to the east of Qalqilya in the western-most part of the occupied West Bank.

The occupation has escalated its violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank following the launching of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7. In fact, the occupation has arrested more than 1,850 Palestinians, most of whom were detained with no charges brought against them.

The arrest campaigns coincide with near-daily raids on cities and towns in the occupied West Bank where Palestinian youth and Resistance fighters bravely confront occupation forces. These forces are employing arbitrary brutal measures in the West Bank in order to limit action in support of Gaza, amid an inhumane aggression on the Strip that has so far led to the martyrdom of more than 9,500 people, more than half of whom are women and children.