Israeli settlers attack journalists

Israeli police said they arrested four suspects on Saturday for allegedly damaging a vehicle carrying foreign journalists in the occupied West Bank, in an incident that US broadcaster CNN described as an attack on its crew by Israeli settlers.

According to CNN, its team was reporting near the village of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, when the incident took place.

“As the CNN team and other journalists tried to leave, a group of four settlers blocked the road with their car and tried to keep the vehicles from moving forward,” the network said in a report on its website.

“The four settlers were wielding wooden and metal rods and stones. One settler brandished a knife and tried to puncture the tyres of CNN’s vehicle.”

CNN said the group later climbed onto another vehicle carrying journalists that was travelling behind its team and smashed its windshield.

In a statement, Israeli police said they received a report alleging that suspects had blocked a vehicle carrying several foreign journalists near Sinjil.

“IDF (military) forces from the Samaria Brigade were dispatched to the scene, secured the journalists’ passage, and detained four suspects believed to have been involved in the incident,” the statement said.

Police later “arrested the suspects, collected witness statements from the journalists, and located and seized the suspects’ vehicle”.