Hawzah News Agency (Occupied Palestine) - June 2020 witnessed a surge of violations against media freedoms in Palestine, most of which were committed by the Israeli authorities and its military forces, Palestinian News Network reported.

The Palestinian Center for Development & Media Freedoms “MADA” has documented a total of 58 infringements, 48 of which were committed by the Israeli occupation, while 8 violations were committed by different Palestinian factions across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Facebook Company committed one violation.

Israeli Violations

The Israeli forces and authorities escalated their breaches against journalists and media outlets in Palestine during the month of June, in an apparent effort to conceal the numerous peaceful Palestinian protests, across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

During June, the Israeli forces committed a total of 48 violations against journalists/media outlets in Palestine, which represents a 166% increase compared to the total number of Israeli attacks documented in May 2020, which amounted to 18 infringements.

Preventing journalists from covering events, and targeting journalists to force them to stay away from events, constituted about 65% of all the Israeli violations documented during June (29).

The Israeli military shot and injured three photo-journalists with rubber-coated steel rounds and detained two journalists during the month of June.

Israel also banned journalist, Sondos Owais, from the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque in al -Quds (Jerusalem) for three months, preventing her from covering events at the holy site.