NABLUS, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement on Saturday strongly condemned the PA chief Mahmoud Abbas's security apparatuses for incessant attacks on journalist and the media in the West Bank that exceeded 45 assaults.

The Movement in a statement in the West Bank said that Hamas views with "utmost concern and utter dismay" the security apparatuses' growing assaults on journalists and media.

It mentioned in this respect the closure of newspapers, blocking the distribution of some of them, closure of press offices and confiscations of their property, and arrest of reporters.

Hamas charged that the continued offensive on the media in the West Bank was a "systematic planned act" aimed at "silencing the voice of truth" and endorsing the policy of imposing one opinion.

It urged the media to exercise their real message in publishing the truth and exposing the practices of Abbas's apparatuses. It also asked the legal and local and international institutions to display solidarity with the Palestinian journalists to enable them exercise their role in carrying the truth away from the security apparatuses' practices.

The statement followed those apparatuses' forced closure of a local TV station in Al-Khalil and arresting its director after broadcasting the speech of Ismail Haneyya, the PA caretaker government's premier, a few days ago.

For its part, the PLC chairmanship issued a statement denouncing the security apparatuses' practices against Palestinian journalists and asked all media institutions to side by their colleagues.