PARIS, November 19, 2011 (WAFA) – The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders Saturday expressed concern over what it described as a new round of Israeli arrests of Palestinian journalists in Jerusalem and the West Bank in the past few days.

It said in a press release that the arrests suggest that “a tougher line is being taken towards the Palestinian media.”

Isra Salhab, 26, the presenter of a program about Palestinian prisoners on the satellite TV station Al-Quds, was summoned for questioning and arrested by the Israeli police in Jerusalem on November 16. After interrogating her for two hours, the police contacted her parents to tell them “your daughter has been arrested” but did not say why.

She was subsequently brought before a military court for a closed-door hearing in which she was not represented by a lawyer. The court postponed a decision until November 21. Salhab meanwhile continues to be detained.

Radio Marah presenter, Raed Sharif, was arrested by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Hebron on November 14. The soldiers first went to his father’s home and interrogated him in order to get him to say where his son lived. The father said the soldiers seemed very tense.

An Israeli military court in the West Bank town of Salfit has also ordered a six-month extension to the detention of Walid Khaled, an editor of the Gaza-based newspaper Filisteen, without giving any reason. Arrested by Israeli soldiers at his home on May 8, he has already spent six months in detention. He previously served a four-year jail sentence.

“Reporters Without Borders condemns this latest surge in harassment and intimidation and calls on the Israeli authorities to free the journalists being held arbitrarily,” said the release.

The organization had previously condemned a wave of arbitrary arrests of Palestinian journalists in August.

The latest arrests came less than two weeks after the arrest of five foreign journalists aboard two Gaza-bound vessels carrying humanitarian supplies, which were intercepted by the Israeli navy on November 4, said the press release.

M.S.