Last updated 2 hours ago
Israeli forces raided the office of Al Jazeera News Network in the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and demanded its complete closure and prevention from operating for (45) days under a military order.
The Israeli forces confiscated all equipment and documents in the office, prevented employees from using their cars, and stopped the network’s broadcast.
Scenes broadcast by Al Jazeera showed Israeli forces raiding the network’s office and handing over the military order to the office director in Ramallah, Walid Al-Omari.
The network reported that an Israeli officer, accompanied by soldiers, informed the office director of a “judicial decision to close Al Jazeera’s office for 45 days.” The officer said, “I ask you to take all cameras and leave the office at this moment.”
The network indicated that no justification was given for the closure order.
According to the military order, the decision will be effective from Saturday night to Sunday morning.
This move is the latest in a series of Israeli measures against the Al Jazeera news network.
It is noteworthy that the Al Jazeera News Network office in Israel was closed last May by the Israeli government.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time that the decision was made unanimously by members of the Israeli government, describing the news network as a channel of “incitement.” But the Israeli newspaper Maariv said the decision was made without the participation of ministers from the official camp.
The decision included stopping all of Al Jazeera’s operations and activities inside Israel, including television broadcasts and all of the network’s media from Israel.
The Israeli government has long accused Al Jazeera, which receives part of its funding from the Qatari government, of being biased against Israel, criticism that has intensified since Hamas’s attack on Israeli towns on October 7, when Netanyahu also described it as a “terrorist channel.”
The Israeli Knesset has passed legislation giving the government the power to ban foreign news networks if it deems them “a threat to national security.”