Israel confirms: Has closed Al Jazeera offices in the West Bank

– They have asked the staff to evacuate within ten minutes and leave all equipment behind, reports channels even night to Sunday.

– Israeli occupation forces seize documents and equipment at Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah after storming and closing it, they write on X.

The channel further states that the channel’s employees are prevented from working in the streets of Ramallah, and that a broadcast was stopped.

Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi confirmed the closure in a statement. He calls Al Jazeera a mouthpiece for Hamas and Hezbollah.

– We will continue to fight against the enemy’s channels and ensure the safety of our heroic warriors, he says in a statement.

– Unacceptable use of force

The Norwegian Association of Journalists strongly distances itself from the storming and closing of the offices by the Israeli forces.

– This is an unacceptable use of power vis-à-vis an editor-controlled medium. Seizure of documents and equipment at Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah is deeply worrying, and an attack on press freedom, says leader Dag Idar Tryggestad to NTB.

– This is not worthy of a democratic country, he adds.

The Norwegian Editors’ Association also reacts strongly to the attack.

– This is a gross attack on freedom of the press and unfortunately joins the series of several incidents that show a lack of respect for the media’s role from the Israeli authorities, writes Secretary General Reidun Kjelling Nybø in an SMS to NTB.

The Palestinian Union of Journalists condemns the decision and calls it a threat to journalism.

Sent live

The soldiers were heavily armed and masked when they entered the building, according to the channel. Al Jazeera’s chief in the West Bank, Walid al-Omari, was handed a closure order.

– Targeting journalists in this way always aims to erase the truth and to prevent people from hearing the truth, he says.

The exact reason for the closure is not known.

– There is a court order to shut down Al Jazeera for 45 days, says one of the soldiers during the live storming of the premises.

The information office of the Palestinian Authority commented on the incident on the Telegram messaging service on the night of Sunday.

– Israeli occupation forces’ storming of Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah after blowing up the main gate of the building, as well as their decision to close the channel, is a major scandal and a gross violation of press freedom. It is proof of the occupation’s weakness in the face of the truth, it says.

Banned in Israel

On May 5 this year, Al Jazeera was banned from broadcasting in Israel. On the same day, Israeli authorities raided the hotel room in Jerusalem that the channel used as an office, and they made it clear that the channel would be closed until the war in Gaza is over. The ban was upheld by a court in Tel Aviv and was later extended.

– We will not allow the terrorist channel Al Jazeera to broadcast from Israel and put our soldiers in danger, Karhi said when the ban was extended.

In a complaint to the Supreme Court, Al Jazeera pointed out that it has never incited violence or terror, and that the ban is disproportionate.

– Not surprisingly

Al Jazeera correspondent Nida Ibrahim says that the closure in Ramallah comes as no surprise after the channel was banned in Israel.

– We have heard Israeli officials threaten to close the office. We have heard the government discuss this, and they have asked the military leadership in the occupied West Bank to close the canal. But we didn’t expect it to happen today, she says.

Since the start of the Gaza war in October last year, Israeli forces have killed 173 journalists, according to figures from the press office of the governing authorities in the Gaza Strip. Two of them, Ismail al-Ghoul and Samer Abudaqa, were from Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera is owned by the State of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and is headquartered in the country’s capital, Doha.