Journalists ordered to leave militarised Ramallah

Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières - RSF) appealed to Israel's civilian authorities to reverse today's Israeli army decision to order all journalists out of the city of Ramallah after declaring it a "closed military zone." RSF said the Israeli authorities "wanted to hide their military operations from the world" and said the decision was "very serious" at a time when war was flaring up in the Middle East. "We appeal to the European Union, the US government and the entire democratic world to persuade the Israeli authorities to ensure the media can continue to report on what is happening in the Occupied Territories," it said. The Ramallah bureau chief of the Qatari TV station Al-Jazeera, Walid el-Omary, told RSF by telephone that he would refuse to leave the city. A US reporter from the Boston Globe was reportedly wounded in Ramallah today.