BBC reporters say IDF detained them in Syrian buffer zone for seven hours
Feras Kilani, a BBC Arabic journalist, claimed that he and his team were detained, strip-searched and interrogated by the IDF.
A team of seven BBC staff members claimed they were detained, strip-searched and interrogated by the IDF in the Syrian buffer zone in a report published Thursday.
Feras Kilani, a BBC Arabic journalist, said that on May 9, he and his team, comprised of himself, two Iraqi BBC staff, one Syrian BBC cameraman, and three Syrian freelancers, left Damascus with the intention of moving toward the Syrian buffer zone.
The team was filming near a United Nations observation post by al-Rafeed when they were informed a nearby IDF unit had inquired about them, being told they were a BBC crew.
Kilani and his team later drove toward Quneitra and saw Israeli tanks and soldiers nearby. One member of the group showed his BBC ID to IDF soldiers watching through binoculars from a nearby tower.
The crew began filming, but were quickly approached and surrounded by IDF soldiers and told to place their camera on the ground.
Kilani claimed that after sending a message to his BBC colleagues in London that the military had stopped them, their phones and equipment were confiscated, and 'things escalated unexpectedly quickly.'
Additional soldiers arrived to search the BBC team's vehicle, and the group was then escorted to the crossing point between Quneitra and the Golan Heights. There, the IDF reviewed the team's footage while they say in their car, 'while one pointed his rifle at my head from metres away.'
Two hours later, Kilani was asked to talk on the phone to a man who 'spoke broken Arabic' and asked why they were filming IDF positions, to which Kilani explained that he was a British BBC journalist and explained his work.
After an additional hour, IDF security personnel arrived with blindfolds and zip ties, and an officer led Kilani to a private room, telling him that he would be treated 'better' than his team, without blindfolds or zip ties.
'I was in shock. I asked why they were doing this when they knew we were a BBC crew. He said he wanted to help get us out quickly and that we had to comply with their instructions,' Kilani wrote.
Over the course of two hours, each member of the team was individually strip-searched in the private room and interrogated, including personal questions, and were returned with their hands still bound but no longer blindfolded.
During the interrogations, IDF soldiers examined the team's phones and laptops, deleting many photos, including personal ones. An officer then threatened them with 'worse consequences' if they approached forces from the Syrian side, adding that they would be tracked down if any hidden footage was published.
After roughly seven hours, the team was led by two IDF vehicles over one mile outside Quneitra, and the soldiers threw the phones back before leaving.
'Lost in the dark with no signal, no internet, and no idea where we were, we kept driving until we reached a small village,' Kilani wrote, adding that the group received directions from a group of local children who warned that 'a wrong turn could draw Israeli fire.'
According to Kilani, it took them 10 minutes to find the road and an additional 45 minutes to reach Damascus.
The BBC has complained to the IDF about what happened, but the military has not responded.
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