Israel shuts down Palestinian TV in raid

By Paul Colsey, CNN
updated 6:30 AM EST, Wed February 29, 2012

Jerusalem (CNN) -- Israeli security forces and intelligence officers raided a Palestinian television station overnight and took computers, tapes, transmitters and paperwork, the director of the station said Wednesday.

The raid began at 2 a.m., Wattan TV director Muamar Orabi said.

"Four night-shift employees were detained for more than three hours inside the offices after their mobile phones were taken," he added.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the raid had taken place.

Israeli Ministry of Communications spokesman Yehiel Shavi said Wattan broadcasts "were interfering with the signals of Israeli broadcasters" and said the interference had been stopped "with the assistance of the IDF."

The IDF said repeated requests had been made to Wattan to stop their broadcasts because they interfere with Israeli broadcasters and flight communications at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.

But Orabi said his station had never received a complaint about transmission frequencies, and said the response was disproportionate even if that was the reason for the raid.

"Why destroy the TV station when they could have just confiscated the two transmitters?" he asked.

"This is not the first time this has happened. Wattan TV was destroyed 10 years ago, in March 2002," he said.

The station called the raid an act of piracy and vowed to continue its work.

"Wattan TV deplores this aggressive behavior against an efficient and effective media organization and will work through its contacts with local and international media and human rights organizations to expose this criminal act," the station said in a statement. "Wattan will work on restoring all the stolen equipment and transmitters and continue interrupted broadcasting."

CNN's Enas Muthaffar contributed to this report