The BBC on Thursday said that Israel Defense Forces held several of its reporters at gunpoint, detained them for seven hours and strip searched them while they were filming a report in southern Syria.
BBC correspondent Feras Kilani and two other BBC staffers, as well as three freelancers were involved in the incident, which the network said occurred on May 9 while they were reporting on the buffer zone in southwestern Syria. That’s the region occupied by Israel since Dec. 8, the day dictator Bashar al-Assad was overthrown by rebel groups.
According to BBC, the reporters “were tied up, blindfolded, strip searched, interrogated and threatened. Their electronic devices were also taken from them and material was deleted.”
Neither IDF nor the Israeli government have commented publicly on the matter. In a statement Friday, BBC said it has filed a formal complaint with IDF and said it “strongly objects to the treatment of our staff and freelancers in this way.
Read the full statement below:
“On Friday 9 May whilst filming in Southern Syria, BBC News Arabic correspondent Feras Kilani, along with two other BBC staff members and four freelance colleagues, were detained for seven hours and held at gunpoint by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The team have described how they were tied up, blindfolded, strip searched, interrogated and threatened. Their electronic devices were also taken from them and material was deleted.
The BBC strongly objects to the treatment of our staff and freelancers in this way. Despite making clear to the soldiers on multiple occasions they were working for the BBC, the behaviour they were subjected to is wholly unacceptable.
We have registered a complaint with the Israeli military but are yet to receive a response.’
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