Israel army withdraws West Bank battalion after CNN journalist assault

JERUSALEM – Israel’s military said on March 30 it pulled a battalion out of the West Bank after a soldier assaulted a CNN photojournalist last week in a village in the occupied Palestinian territory.

A CNN team was reporting on the aftermath of an assault by Israeli settlers and the establishment of an illegal outpost near the Palestinian village of Tayasir on March 26 when they were detained by Israeli soldiers, the Foreign Press Association (FPA) said in a statement.

After the soldiers pointed their guns at the CNN crew, “an IDF soldier approached CNN’s photojournalist from behind, placed him in a chokehold, slammed him to the ground, and damaged his camera”, said the association, which represents hundreds of journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

CNN corroborated the details in its own report on the incident, identifying the photojournalist as Frenchman Cyril Theophilos.

“This was not a misunderstanding… It was a violent assault on clearly identified journalists and a direct attack on press freedom,” the FPA said.

On March 30, the military, in a rare move, withdrew a battalion from the West Bank following the incident.

“The operational deployment currently being carried out by the reserve battalion will be suspended,” it said in a statement. “The battalion will remain in reserve service and will undergo a process aimed at reinforcing its professional and ethical foundations.”

The battalion would resume operational activity once the process is completed, the military added.

It was the second such incident involving CNN in March.

A CNN producer was earlier left with a fractured wrist following an “unprovoked assault” by Israeli police officers in Jerusalem.

Journalists in the West Bank have, on numerous occasions, been detained, harassed or beaten, with a notable rise in incidents after the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, according to rights groups.

Israel has been listed as a “top jailer of journalists” since then, according to the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

The committee said at least 60 Palestinian journalists have been detained or jailed by Israeli forces since the start of the Gaza war.

Though foreign journalists are less at risk, soldiers at checkpoints or at sites of breaking news frequently aim their weapons at reporters. AFP