The IDF detained a group of CNN journalists in the West Bank on Friday, damaging their cameras and hurting one photographer, the American news outlet reported.
The CNN team was interviewing Palestinian residents of the West Bank town of Tayasir, after settlers established an outpost in the town and reportedly violently attacked residents.
While conducting interviews on camera, IDF soldiers ordered the team and the Palestinians to stop speaking and aimed their weapons at the group, according to the CNN reporters present.
One soldier then reportedly approached CNN photojournalist Cyril Theophilos from behind and put him in a chokehold, bringing him down to the ground, and damaging his camera in the process.
The IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir spoke with IDF Central Command Chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth on Saturday evening, following the incident. In the meeting, Zamir requested to receive the main findings of the ongoing investigation as soon as possible, along with command recommendations, the IDF informed.
CNN reported that the crew’s detention lasted two hours. Their Palestinian interview subjects were detained alongside them.
During that detention, the IDF soldiers shared their personal perspectives on Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank with CNN’s Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond.
IDF soldiers spell out far-right ideology to CNN reporter
One IDF soldier, who identified himself to CNN as Meir, acknowledged that the settler outpost he was protecting in Tayasir is illegal under Israeli law.
“But this will be a legal settlement,” Meir said. “Slowly, slowly.”
When CNN asked if Meir was willingly helping make that become a reality, he responded, “Of course… I help my people.”
Meir and another soldier repeatedly told the reporters that all of the West Bank belongs to Israel and the Jewish people, echoing the rhetoric of far Right Israeli government ministers, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
They also reportedly openly labeled all Palestinians as terrorists and spoke of seeking revenge for Yehuda Sherman, an 18-year-old settler who was killed by a Palestinian driver by ramming his ATV into the young Israeli.
Local Palestinians dispute the accounts of Sherman’s death and told CNN that he was trying to steal a sheep.
The soldiers said they had known Sherman personally and implied that the incident had affected their official operations.
“If you had a brother and they killed him, what would you have done?” one of the soldiers asked the CNN crew.
“So that’s revenge?” CNN responded.
“Revenge,” Meir replied. “Listen, at the end of the day, if the state doesn’t address what they did – those who murdered the youth, what do you expect us to do?”
In response to the incident, the IDF issued a statement, saying: “The actions and behavior of the soldiers in the incident are incompatible with what is expected of IDF soldiers operating in the Judea and Samaria area.”
The military told CNN that the incident would be thoroughly reviewed.
It did not respond to the outlet’s questions regarding increased settler violence in the West Bank or the new outpost.
The CNN team interviewed a local Palestinian from Tayasir named Abdullah Daraghmeh, 75, who was recovering in a hospital after reportedly being attacked by settlers in his home while he was asleep in bed.
Residents reported that settlers had stormed Tayasir early on Thursday morning, firing guns into the air and assaulting multiple Palestinians residents.
Daraghmeh suffered a fractured skull as a result of the assault, multiple facial bone fractures, and the loss of several teeth.
“He was asleep... This is not normal,” his son told CNN.
Daraghmeh told CNN that if the settlers returned to his home, his only course of action would be to film them.
“If they come, I will just hold my phone and film… I can’t push them or touch them – I will be taken to the police and imprisoned if they don’t kill me,” Dabak said.
“The camera is my only weapon – it’s the only thing that can prove that I am innocent.”
Lara Sukster Mosheyof contributed to this report.