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Al-Quds building, Jerusalem. Source: Wikipedia
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JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli police searched the main offices of Jerusalem-based Palestinian news outlet al-Quds late Monday, holding employees at gunpoint and harassing reporters during the search, local sources said.

Sources told Ma’an that Israeli police raided the newspaper's main building and print shop in the Atarot industrial area in northern Jerusalem before checking surveillance cameras, in a search for West Bank ID-holders who had allegedly entered Israel illegally.
Al-Quds newspapers’ employees denied that anyone was present in the building who had entered the area illegally, sources said.

Witnesses said that two Israeli officers pulled guns on al-Quds employees during the raid, shouting obscenities at journalists in the office.

An Israeli police spokesperson had no information on the search.
Palestinian media outlets have been frequently targeted by the Israeli authorities since unrest hit the occupied Palestinian territory over the past six months, with a number of outlets shut down for alleged “incitement against Israel.”

Following Israel’s raid and closure of a slew of news offices late last year, a high-ranking PA official said the move was part of Israel’s policy to "oppress the voice of Palestinian rights.”

The Israeli authorities last month stepped up efforts to crackdown on Palestinians entering Israel illegally from the occupied West Bank following a number of attacks carried out in occupied East Jerusalem and Israel by Palestinians from West Bank areas.

Critics said the crackdown disproportionately punished Palestinians who work in Israel, despite the fact that at the time the campaign was launched, only two attacks had been carried out by Palestinians working in Israel -- both of whom had permits.