Israel is targeting Palestinian journalists in an effort to limit the coverage of its atrocities against civilians in the occupied territories, Hamas said yesterday.

Commenting on the detention of four Palestinian journalists from the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, Hamas said in a statement: “The retention of the Israeli policy of detaining journalists is proof that the occupation is afraid of the free journalists who report the suffering of Palestinians.”

Hamas also said that the “aggressive Israeli measures against the Palestinian journalists will not hide the reality,” noting that these “free people reinforce the Palestinian narrative” related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The movement called on the international community to take up its responsibility and defend the Palestinian journalists and guarantee their freedom.

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Sources said that Israeli occupation forces stormed the houses of the journalists Alaa Al-Rimawi, Mohammed Olwan, Hosni Injas and Qutaiba Hamdan before detaining them.

According to the sources, the Israeli occupation forces confiscated their cameras and other work equipment, in addition to Al-Rimawi and Injas’ cars.