ANKARA (A.A) - 30.03.2002 - A total of four Turkish journalists who are currently in Ramallah to cover the developments, have been kept under detention by Israeli security forces since last night.
Mete Cubukcu from private Star-TV television channel told the A.A correspondent on the phone on Saturday that Mustafa Sap from Star TV, Burak Ersemiz from private ATV television channel, Talip Alpogan from ATV and he had been detained by Israeli security forces at the Palestinian Media Center.
He said that together with them, also three Palestinian journalists were under detention.
Noting that they had been working at the center for the last two days to cover the clashes between Israeli and Palestinian forces, Cubukcu said that Israeli tanks came in front of the center at about 11:00 p.m. overnight.
''Tanks stopped in front of the building and started to open fire when we were outside. Later, we fled to inside of the building, to the studio on the sixth floor. They launched an operation in the building. Israeli officials said that someone in the building opened fire on them. We heard loud noises at about midnight. They used bombs to destroy doors of apartments. They checked everywhere. When they came to the sixth floor, it was six in the morning. They told us that clash erupted in the third floor and five Palestinians died. They knocked on the door when they came to the studio. We told them that we were journalists. Commandos entered studio. They forced us to put off our cloths and performed a body-check to control whether we were carrying bombs. We waited for 15-20 minutes with our hands on the wall. Then, they took our passports and identity cards,'' he said.
Cubukcu noted that they were not allowed to hold telephone conversations or to use their cameras for a while. He said that they were allowed to use their telephones just an hour ago.
''We do not know how long they will keep us in this building. There is not electricity. I do not know when my cell phone's battery will finish,'' he added.
Meanwhile, Huseyin Avni Bicakci, the Turkish Consul General in Jerusalem, has launched initiatives for release of Turkish journalists.