Israeli security forces detained on Tuesday The Washington Post Jerusalem Bureau Chief William Booth, an employee of The Association for Civil Rights close to Jerusalem's Damascus Gate, accusing him of incitement while interviewing people, Haaretz reported.

William Booth says he was interviewing Palestinians at Damascus Gate, an entrance to Jerusalem's Old City, when he and his translator were arrested Tuesday.

Booth says after presenting government-issued press cards to an officer, he and his colleague were taken to a police station and held for half an hour before they were released. He says an officer told them they had been suspected of "incitement."

William Booth and the newspaper's West Bank correspondent, Sufian Taha, were taken to a police station and held for about 40 minutes before being released, the Foreign Press Association in Israel (FPA) said in a statement protesting against their detention.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Emmanuel Nahshon, called it "a regrettable incident" and praised Booth as "an excellent journalist". The ministry would ask the police to clarify the incident, he said.

The FPA said their detention came in the context of "heavy-handed tactics" - including what it described as violent attacks by border police against foreign journalists and their Palestinian colleagues covering unrest in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the journalists were questioned in connection to an unspecified "incident" and quickly released after it was clear they were not involved.

Booth and one other released soon after being detained, the report added.