Kuwait Times

JERUSALEM: Palestinian gunmen who used a vehicle disguised as a television truck to assault an Israeli military position drew sharp condemnations yesterday from journalists who charged that the incident, the first of its kind, would make their jobs more dangerous than ever.  In Saturday's attack, four gunmen drove a white jeep with press markings in English and Arabic up to the Gaza-Israel border, penetrated the border fence and assaulted a guard tower in what the militants and the army said was a failed attempt to capture an Israeli soldier. Israeli troops killed one gunman, while the others escaped.  The attackers, from Islamic Jihad and the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, abandoned the jeep.  AP photographs show a white armored vehicle of a type used by reporters, its windshield pocked by bullet holes, bearing red markings reading "TV" and "Press." Reporters covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict often mark their cars to avoid being targeted.

The incident Saturday marked the first time combatants have used press disguise in an attack in the last seven years of violence.  By making them suspect in the eyes of the Israeli army, the attack was certain to multiply the hazards for Gaza journalists, who already face intimidation from Palestinian militant groups involved in a violent internal power struggle. Journalists have historically operated unhindered in Gaza.  But over the past two years, a string of foreign reporters in the chaotic territory have been kidnapped by militants and released. A British TV correspondent, Alan Johnston, remains in captivity three months after he was snatched from a Gaza street. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert mentioned the Gaza attack at the Israeli government's weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday, saying the militants tried to "trick the army" and "take advantage of the special sensitivity that exists in a democracy like ours for the right of the media to operate freely in sensitive security areas."

In Gaza, the Palestinian Journalists' Association released a statement yesterday condemning the attackers' use of press cover, which it said "puts the life of journalists in danger ... limits their ability to undertake their professional and national duties, and harms their journalistic work, which is protected by international law." No Gaza journalist would go on the record condemning the attack, however, with many saying they feared retribution from militants. In Tel Aviv, the Foreign Press Association, which represents international news organizations operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said the gunmen's "abuse of this recognized protection for the working journalist is a grave development and we condemn those that carried it out." Army spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovitch said the militants' "cynical exploitation of the protection given to journalists endangers the lives of soldiers and civilians." Only vehicles registered with the Israeli government are given protection, she said, but the jeep used by the gunmen closely resembled several accredited vehicles.

Charges that press cover has been abused by combatants have arisen periodically in a conflict that draws some of the world's most intense media coverage.  In two incidents in Gaza in the past year, Palestinian security officials said militants used cars with press markings to transport weapons. Palestinians have also charged that undercover Israeli troops have used press vehicles to move around Palestinian areas, an allegation the military denies. In south Lebanon during last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas, journalists witnessed Hezbollah men transporting rockets in vehicles with conspicuous "TV" markings. Last August, an Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at a jeep owned by the Reuters news agency in Gaza, wounding two journalists and three bystanders. The army said at the time that the jeep was driving in a suspicious manner in the middle of a combat zone and that its press markings were not visible. Yesterday, a day after the attack, Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Ahmad denied the group had put the press markings on the jeep and accusing the Israeli military of doing so after the incident. "Islamic Jihad appreciates the work of the international and the Palestinian media," he said.  But AP photographs clearly show the markings on the jeep when the attack was under way. - AP