Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera reported that Israeli forces stormed its office in Ramallah, located in the occupied West Bank, on Sunday and issued a 45-day closure order. This action follows Israel's government decision last week to revoke the press credentials of Al Jazeera journalists within the country, a move that came four months after banning the channel from operating inside Israel.
"There is a court ruling for closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days," an Israeli soldier informed Al Jazeera's West Bank bureau chief Walid al-Omari, according to the network's report, which cited a live broadcast of the conversation. "I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment," the soldier instructed, as seen in footage showing heavily armed and masked troops entering the office. Al Jazeera stated that the soldiers did not provide any reason for the closure order. The Israeli army has yet to respond to a request for comment.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has a history of conflict with Al Jazeera, which has intensified since the Gaza war began. The Israeli military has frequently accused journalists from the Qatari network of acting as "terrorist agents" in Gaza, affiliated with Hamas or its allies. Al Jazeera denies these accusations and asserts that Israel systematically targets its employees in the Gaza Strip. The media office of the Hamas-run government in Gaza denounced Sunday's raid, calling it a "resounding scandal and a blatant violation of press freedom."
In early April, the Israeli parliament passed a law permitting the banning of foreign media broadcasts deemed harmful to state security. Based on this law, the Israeli government approved on May 5 the decision to ban Al Jazeera from broadcasting within Israel and close its offices for a renewable 45-day period, which was extended for a fourth time by a Tel Aviv court last week. This shutdown has not impacted broadcasts from the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, where Al Jazeera continues to cover the war. Al Jazeera correspondent Nida Ibrahim noted that the network's West Bank office closure "comes as no surprise" following the earlier ban on reporting from inside Israel. "We've heard Israeli officials threatening to close down the bureau," she said on the network. "But we (had) not been expecting it to happen today." Bureau chief Omari commented that "targeting journalists this way always aims to erase the truth and prevent people from hearing the truth." In May, the network condemned the ban on its operations as "criminal" over its coverage of the Gaza war. "We condemn and denounce this criminal act by Israel that violates the human right to access information," the channel stated in a release.
