Jerusalem, Israel - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Monday to use a fresh national security law passed by parliament to ban news channel Al Jazeera from broadcasting in the country.

The law, passed on Monday by 70 votes to 10, grants top ministers the power to ban broadcasts by foreign channels deemed a national security threat and to shut their offices.

Netanyahu was quick to single out Qatar-based channel Al Jazeera, with which his government has a long-running feud that predates Israel's current siege of Gaza.

"The terrorist channel Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel. I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel's activities," Netanyahu said on X, formerly Twitter.

Joke of the Day Joke of the Day for December 19, 2024: The best Christmas jokes to get your funny on

The broadcaster slammed the ban as "part of a series of systematic Israeli attacks to silence Al Jazeera," including the killing of one of its most prominent journalists in the region while covering an Israeli raid in May 2022.

In a statement, the network said Netanyahu had launched a "frantic" and "disgraceful" campaign of accusations against the network, vowing to continue its "bold" coverage of the Gaza assault.

Two network correspondents have been killed during the conflict, and the broadcaster's office in the besieged Palestinian territory has been bombed.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Israel's law "contributes to a climate of self-censorship and hostility toward the press, a trend that has escalated since the Israel-Gaza war began."

At least 95 journalists and media workers have been killed since October, according to the group, marking "the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992."

In January, Israel claimed an Al Jazeera staff journalist and a freelancer killed in an air strike in Gaza were "terror operatives."

Viral Video of the Day Viral Video of the Day for December 21, 2024: Seven-year-old stuns audience at Christmas performance!

The following month, it accused another journalist with the channel who was wounded in a separate strike of being a "deputy company commander" with Hamas.

Al Jazeera has fiercely denied Israel's allegations and accused it of systematically targeting Al Jazeera employees in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas said in a statement that the ban showed that Israel "desperately seeks to obscure the truth of its heinous crimes."

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said "if it is true, a move like this is concerning."

Broadcasting in both English and Arabic, Al Jazeera bills itself as the "first independent news channel in the Arab world."

Launched in Doha in 1996, the network says it has more than 70 bureaus around the globe, with 3,000 employees and an audience in 430 million homes.

Tensions between Israel and Al Jazeera have only grown since October 7.

Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Gaza, Wael al-Dahdouh, was wounded in an Israeli strike in December that killed the network's cameraman.

His wife, two of their children, and a grandson were killed in the October bombardment of central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp.

His eldest son was the Al Jazeera staff journalist killed in January when a strike targeted a car in Rafah.

Israel has killed at least 32,845 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since October, according to the Gaza health ministry. Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation's blockade on aid entry has left millions at threat of starvation.