Kan News journalist Yoav Borovich claimed that he was assaulted and robbed while covering the massive wildfire near Havat Gilad in Samaria.
According to Borovich, he was the first journalist to arrive at the scene, where he documented the fire and the firefighting aircraft before sending the footage to the newsroom.
He said he then continued interviewing residents whose homes had been destroyed when he noticed a group of approximately 20 to 30 "Hilltop Youth," most of them wearing masks, approaching from a nearby hill.
Borovich wrote that he filmed the group for a few seconds. When they demanded that he delete the footage, he refused. He said he was then surrounded and threatened.
According to Borovich, one of the Havat Gilad residents whose home had been destroyed advised him to leave the area. He added that there were no other journalists or police officers present, only a few members of the United Hatzalah emergency response organization. He therefore retreated to his vehicle and waited for a cameraman who was at a nearby checkpoint.
He said that after several masked individuals initially approached his vehicle and then walked away, they returned a short time later. According to Borovich, two of them blocked his car while others opened the passenger-side door, grabbed him, and took the mobile phone that was connected to its charging mount. "It all happened within two seconds," he wrote.
Borovich said he did not attempt to chase the suspects because he believed doing so would have put his life at risk.
"I didn't chase them. They were dangerous. I was lucky. It could have ended much worse."
He added that the stolen phone contained years' worth of personal documentation and accumulated information. He said he filed a complaint with the Israel Police but expressed doubt that the device would be recovered or that its contents could be restored.
He concluded: "In any case, trying to chase the robbers or confront them would have put my life in danger. The truth is, I was already in a kind of life-threatening situation even before that, when they surrounded me in large numbers and threatened me."