Pictured is a view of the Al Jazeera television network offices in Ramallah, the occupied West Bank, on May 5, 2024.
Zain Jaafar | AFP | Getty Images
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli troops raided the offices of satellite news network Al Jazeera in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and ordered the station to shut down.
Al Jazeera, which broadcast live video of Israeli troops on its Arabic channel, ordered offices to close for 45 days. This comes after Israeli police issued a special order in May to raid Al Jazeera's East Jerusalem broadcast station, confiscating equipment there, blocking its broadcasts in Israel and blocking its website.
The move marks the first time Israel has shut down foreign news outlets operating in the country. However, Al Jazeera continues to operate in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, where Palestinians hope to establish their future state.
The Israeli army did not immediately acknowledge the closure. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. Al Jazeera condemned the move and continued to broadcast live from Amman in neighboring Jordan.
Israeli armed forces entered the office and told reporters live that the office would be closed for 45 days and said staff needed to leave immediately. The network later aired footage of what appeared to be Israeli troops tearing down banners from a balcony used at Al Jazeera's offices. Al Jazeera said it contained a photo of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead by Israeli forces in May 2022.
“The court ruled to close Al Jazeera for 45 days,” an Israeli soldier told Al Jazeera's local bureau chief Walid al-Omari in a live video. “I ask you to take all your cameras and leave the office now.”
Omari later said Israeli forces began confiscating the bureau's documents and equipment as tear gas and gunfire could be seen and heard in the area.
Through the 1993 Oslo Accords, Palestinians gained limited autonomy in Gaza and parts of the occupied West Bank. While Israel occupies and controls large swaths of the West Bank, Ramallah is entirely under Palestinian political and security control, which makes the Israeli attack on Al Jazeera's offices all the more surprising.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned the Israeli attacks and orders.
“This arbitrary military decision is a new aggression against journalism and the media,” the statement read.
The Palestinian Authority administers parts of the West Bank. After Hamas seized power in 2007, its forces were driven out of Gaza and it has no power there.
The network has reported non-stop on Israel's war with Hamas since the first cross-border attack by militants on October 7, maintaining 24-hour coverage in the Gaza Strip even as Israel's fierce offensive took a toll on its staff. It is unclear whether the Israeli military will also target Al Jazeera's operations in Gaza.
Al Jazeera's Arabic-language unit frequently releases verbatim video statements from Hamas and other regional militant groups, while including on-the-ground coverage of war casualties.
This has led officials such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to claim that the network “compromises Israel's security and incites opposition to soldiers.” The claims have been strongly denied by Al Jazeera, whose main funder Qatar has been key to negotiations between Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire to end the war.
Since then, the order to close Israel’s Al Jazeera TV station has been repeatedly updated, but so far no order has been issued to close the Ramallah office.
The war began when Hamas-led militants launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. They kidnapped another 250 people and still held about 100 hostages. Israeli operations in Gaza have killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians.
The closure of Al Jazeera's Ramallah office comes as tensions continue to rise as the fighting threatens to expand into Lebanon.
Explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday killed at least 37 people, including two children, and injured about 3,000 others.