Police prosecutors said Thursday that they have filed charges against a young man from Jerusalem accused of attacking journalists, including a CNN media crew, while they were driving earlier this month in the West Bank.

The reporters were traveling to Sinjil, a village north of Ramallah, to cover the anniversary of the killing of US-Palestinian citizen Sayfollah Musallet, 20, who was allegedly beaten to death by a group of settlers last summer.

According to a CNN report from the day of the July 11 attack, the journalists had just arrived when four settlers approached their vehicles and tried to block their route. It was the second time this year that a CNN crew was reportedly attacked in the West Bank, following an incident in March.

The network said the four settlers wielded rods and stones, with one trying to burst the tires of CNN’s vehicle with a knife. The settlers smashed the windshield of another vehicle trailing them that was also carrying journalists, tried to block an exit route and chased the media teams toward Sinjil.

Israeli soldiers dispatched to the scene enabled the journalists to pass and apprehended four suspects, police said.

The defendant, a man in his 20s, is accused of slashing the tires of one of the vehicles with a knife, then jumping atop the second car’s hood and hitting its windshield with a pole.

Israeli settlers armed with clubs, rocks and a knife blocked our way and........

© The Times of Israel