Post Star · Glens Falls, NY · 15 March 2002

CP-2002-119

Hazards of covering combat growing

By LAURA KING, Associated Press

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Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM ♦ On one side are Israeli soldiers, on the other are Palestinian gunmen — and caught in the middle are journalists trying to cover an increasingly chaotic conflict raging in the streets of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The death of an Italian photographer in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Wednesday — the first foreign journalist to be killed in 17 months of fighting — points up the growing hazards faced by those reporting on the latest spasm of bloodletting in the Middle East.

This week, Israel launched its biggest military operation in a generation, using troops, tanks, Apache assault helicopters and F-16 warplanes in what it described as a decisive push against Palestinian militants and weapons-makers.

For the most part, the recent fighting has taken place at breathtakingly close range, in crowded Palestinian towns and refugee camps throughout the West Bank and Gaza. And on both sides, many combatants are young, jittery and quick at the trigger. A top Israeli military commander said Thursday that journalists needed to weigh the risks for themselves.

"It's an unhealthy neighborhood, and journalists ... need to be careful and not move in places that are too dangerous," said Col. Yair Golan, a brigade commander. The danger, of course, is not limited to journalists. This has been the bloodiest month since the conflict erupted in September 2000.

So far in March, more than 170 Palestinians and at least 62 Israelis, including combatants and civilians on both sides, have died.

How this transcription was made

Date and publication rest on the collector's slide label; no masthead, folio or printed dateline appears on this clipping. Filed under the archive’s spelling; the page prints “The Post-Star”.

Context added by this archive

Clipped page top: headline, byline, photograph and four columns. No masthead, no folio, no printed date, so date is label-only. There is no deck; the headline stands alone. The paper uses a diamond ♦ rather than a dash after the dateline, a Post-Star house style. Casualty figures as printed: 'more than 170 Palestinians and at least 62 Israelis' for March alone.

The paper spells the photographer 'Ciriello' throughout. Photo caption: 'A crewman of an Israeli armored personnel carrier looks for targets for his Gatling gun on Thursday in Ramallah.' (ASSOCIATED PRESS).

The excerpt is transcribed from magnified crops of column one; the Ricucci and World Association of Newspapers material in columns three and four was read at full-page magnification only and should be re-checked before any of it is quoted on the site.

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