A CNN journalist has been pulled from covering the Israel-Palestine conflict after calling Israelis cheering missile strikes on Gaza “scum.”
Diana Magnay used her Twitter account to castigate the crowd gathered on a hill above the Israeli town of Sderot on Thursday night.
She also alleged some had threatened the TV crew. Magnay tweeted: “Israelis on hill above Sderot cheer as bombs land #gaza; threaten to `destroy our car if I say a word wrong.’ Scum.”
In a statement sent to the Huffington Post website on Friday, a spokeswoman for the U.S. TV network said: “After being threatened and harassed before and during a liveshot, Diana reacted angrily on Twitter. She deeply regrets the language used, which was aimed directly at those who had been targeting our crew.
"She certainly meant no offense to anyone beyond that group, and she and CNN apologize for any offense that may have been taken.”
In an earlier dispatch a group of Israelis could be heard cheering on the strikes.
The CNN spokeswoman said Magnay had been reassigned to Moscow.
A day earlier another U.S. broadcast network, NBC News, pulled correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin from Gaza after he posted stark images and comments on his Twitter feed following an Israeli strike that killed four Palestinian children playing on a beach.
www.aa.com.tr/en
