Alwaght- A Palestinian radio station was raided by Israeli regime forces in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron on Wednesday.
The forces ransacked al-Sanabel Radio station building detaining five employees and ordering a three months closure for the radio. The forces destroyed the contents on the station and confiscated most of its transmission equipment.
Local employees including the head of the station were detained after in a raid on their homes. Tel Aviv military confirmed the closure in a press statement claiming it broadcasted inciting programs against Israeli regime.
The attack comes amid a documented increased Tel Aviv's crackdown on press and journalists.
The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms, known as MADA, had declared an “unprecedented” increase in the violation against journalists in 2015 when the incidents of aggression against press reached “the highest ever to be monitored in Palestine” since the group started monitoring violations against media freedoms more than a decade ago.
The center has recorded a 17 percent increase in yet “unprecedented” violations of media freedom by Israeli forces during the first half of 2016, MADA General Director Moussa Rimawi said in the semi-annual report.
During the period between January and June of 2016, Israelis shot down two media institutions after raiding their headquarters and confiscating equipment, detaining 23 journalists while 23 others have been exposed to physical injuries from bullets, stun grenades, tear gas canisters, or beatings
The most severe violation recorded during the first half of 2016 was the “execution” of the 22-year-old Palestinian journalism student Iyad Omar Sajadiyya, who was shot dead by Israeli forces in March during fierce clashes that broke out when the military raided Qalandiya refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
