Israeli forces barge into Al Jazeera office and order shutdown in illegally occupied West Bank
Ramallah, West Bank - Heavily armed and masked Israeli forces barged into Al Jazeera's office in the illegally occupied West Bank and ordered a shutdown of the network on Sunday.
Israel's government last week announced it was revoking the press credentials of Al Jazeera journalists in the country, 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 told Al Jazeera's Ramallah bureau chief Walid al-Omari in a conversation that was broadcast live.
"I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment," footage shows the soldier saying.
Al Jazeera said the soldiers did not provide a reason for the closure order.
Omari said the closure order accused the network of "incitement to and support of terrorism."
"Targeting journalists this way always aims to erase the truth and prevent people from hearing the truth," the bureau chief said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has launched an unprecedented attack on press freedom since the start of Israel's brutal war on Gaza.
The Israeli military has baselessly accused journalists from the Qatari network of being "terrorist agents" in Gaza affiliated with Hamas or its ally, Islamic Jihad.
Al Jazeera denies Israel's claims and points out that Israeli forces systematically target its employees, some of whom are among the over 100 journalists killed since October 7 – the highest number ever documented in a conflict.
Israel's unprecedented attack on freedom of the press
The Israeli parliament passed a law in early April allowing 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 from 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.
The shutdown had not affected broadcasts from the West Bank or Gaza, which Israel is illegally occupying.
Al Jazeera correspondent Nida Ibrahim said the network's West Bank office closure "comes as no surprise" after the earlier ban on reporting from inside Israel.
Staff were reportedly prevented from reporting on the raid and their cameras were confiscated.
"We've heard Israeli officials threatening to close down the bureau," Ibrahim said. "But we (had) not been expecting it to happen today."
Cover photo: via REUTERS