This is the moment an Israeli security official screams at a journalist who allegedly shouted ‘we will raze Gaza to dust’ off camera during a live broadcast.
The angry official confronted a news reporter while on air Sunday in the city of Ashdod, less than 50 km from the border with Gaza.
In the surreal footage, journalist Ahmad Darwasheh, who works as a reporter for Al-Araby TV – a Qatar-based Arab news station – was barracked by the officer.
According to Younis Tirawi, a Palestinian reporter who shared a subtitled video of the confrontation online, Mr Darawsheh was ‘threatened and assaulted’ while broadcasting live.
The bizarre incident, which came as Israel prepares to launch a ground invasion of Gaza, begins with the officer walking into the camera’s view and demanding that the reporter tell him where he is from.
In the footage, the security officer says he doesn’t mind the reporter broadcasting live while confronting him
He barracks the journalist and says that he ‘had better say good things’ about the Israeli army
Mr Darawsheh then said he was from ‘Nazareth’, with the security officer quickly asking ‘what do you say?’
When the reporter asks him to wait ‘one moment’ while they are live on air, the officer raises his voice and says: ‘I don’t care if you are live, what do you say?’
In response, the journalist claims that he is ‘saying what the Israeli army is doing’, which caused an uproar from the man.
He shouts: ‘You better say good things. Understand? And all these Hamas must be massacred! Am I clear?! Because if you don’t report the truth, woe to you!’
Mr Darawsheh, looking stunned, responds with ‘ok’ before the man walks away and out of sight of the camera.
Colleagues in the studio ask the reporter, trying to regain his composure what the police officer said.
He said: ‘The Israeli police are monitoring what we say and he came to me shouting and threatening me’
He then looks away from the camera and moments later the Israeli man steps in front of the equipment and looks directly into the lens.
He then goes into another rant and shouts ‘Abominable! We will turn Gaza into dust! Substance!’ while Mr. Darawsheh looked on in amazement.
The man then walks away, leaving Mr Darawsheh to pick up the pieces.
As he rants, the officer gets in the journalist’s face as viewers at home watch
He then turns to the camera before shouting that Israel will ‘turn Gaza into dust’
It comes as tensions continue to rise in the region, with Israel planning a ground invasion of Gaza after terrorist attacks by Hamas killed hundreds of people.
In recent days, Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip with airstrikes that have killed more than 2,300 people, including entire families.
Yesterday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed to have killed the mastermind behind the massacres in rural communities in last week’s attacks.
The military said an airstrike in southern Gaza killed Bilal al Kedra, who it believed was behind the devastating Kibbutz Nirim and Nir Oz massacres last weekend.
Israel said it hit more than 100 military targets, including command centers and rocket launchers, on Saturday night and Sunday morning in preparation for the ground strikes.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 2,329 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting broke out.
An Israeli Defense Force spokesman told CNN that the top priority in the military operation is to rescue the hostages, who are “most likely” being held underground in an “extensive network of tunnels.”
Since the Hamas invasion, the bloodiest single day in Israel’s 75-year history, the Israeli army says it has mobilized 360,000 reservists.
More than 1,300 Israelis were killed, the vast majority of them civilians, in Hamas’s initial attack on October 7.
On Saturday, two top Hamas commanders who led the terror group’s murderous attack on Israel were killed in airstrikes.
Murad Abu Murad, who is believed to have masterminded the deadly paragliding attack by Hamas gunmen last weekend, was killed by a bomb that targeted the headquarters of the terror group’s aerial activities.
Meanwhile, Ali Qadhi, a commander in the ruthless ‘Nukhba’ commando unit, was killed in a drone strike.
Officials have unveiled a black-and-white video of a massive explosion engulfing a Hamas base where he is said to be located.
The elimination of two of Hamas’ most senior leaders is a boost to the Israeli government’s vow to ‘wipe the terror group off the face of the earth’.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared last week: ‘Every Hamas terrorist is a dead man.’