Israeli soldiers in the West Bank threatened and detained a group of journalists from the German public broadcaster ARD, the television station reported on Sunday evening, as quoted by dpa.

ARD correspondent Jan-Christoph Kitzler was returning from an interview, accompanied by a Palestinian and a station employee, when they were stopped by Israeli soldiers south of Hebron, ARD reported, citing Agerpres.

The military treated the journalists extremely aggressively, pointed their weapons several times at the car they were in, the cited source notes.

Bavarian Rundfunk, a member station of the ARD network that operates out of the ARD studio in Tel Aviv, called the incident an attack on press freedom.

The Israeli army apologized

According to the German TV channel, the ARD team of journalists was supposed to report on the violence that radical Jewish settlers committed against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

“The soldiers threatened us with weapons and asked if we were Jews. Our colleague was insulted when he was called a traitor,” said ARD correspondent Jan-Christoph Kitzler.

According to him, the situation calmed down more than an hour after other military and police were called.

“The Israel Defense Forces apologize for any inconvenience caused,” the IDF told dpa on Monday in response to a request for comment on the incident.

The second case in a week

The ISD claims that the actions of the “soldiers” were checked and the protocols were repeated, although the statement did not mention whether these actions violated the protocols, dpa notes.

In late October, the Foreign Press Association in Israel appealed to the Israeli army to ensure the safety of journalists and complained of two incidents in the West Bank in which soldiers harassed journalists, including another situation where ARD journalists were detained for two hours while reporting about the violence committed by Jewish settlers near Kavawi.

“This is the second case for us in a week. Members of our team clearly identified themselves as media representatives and were far from the military security zone. We cannot accept the actions of the Israeli army,” said the head of the ARD studio from Tel Aviv, Christian Limpert.