Occupation soldiers storm Israeli occupation forces stormed Al Jazeera's offices in the West Bank early Sunday morning, forcing the office to close. Al Jazeera broadcast a video showing the occupation forces entering the office and issuing orders to employees to evacuate and halt operations.
“There is a court order to close Al Jazeera for 45 days. I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment,” a soldier said in footage broadcast live, according to Al Jazeera, to Al Jazeera bureau chief Walid Al Omari.
The forces confiscated documents and equipment – including the microphone Al-Omari was using to conduct interviews with them. In an article about the raid, Al Jazeera wrote that the move was “aimed at silencing the network’s coverage of the Gaza war.”
Twelve hours after the raid, the Israeli government issued a statement that included no evidence that the office “was used to incite terrorism and support terrorist activities and that the channel's broadcasts endangered security and public order.”
Al Jazeera said the accusations were “baseless” and that the network “will not be intimidated or deterred by efforts to silence its coverage.”
The Israeli government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, has frequently complained that the Qatar-based channel is a “mouthpiece for Hamas.” The network has frequently aired uncensored video statements from Hamas and other militant groups in the region, including calls by Hamas officials for a violent uprising in the West Bank on Oct. 7 — the day Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing nearly 1,200 Israelis.
In May, the Israeli government shut down Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, shuttered its offices in Jerusalem, and raided and confiscated its equipment. It also banned Al Jazeera from broadcasting in Israel, citing national security concerns after the Israeli parliament passed a law allowing the government to shut down foreign broadcasts if they were deemed to pose a threat to Israel’s security. Last week, the Israeli government revoked the credentials of Al Jazeera journalists in the country.
The Foreign Press Association, which represents international media operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said, In a statement The organization expressed its “deep concern about this escalation that threatens press freedom.” It called on the government to “reconsider these measures,” adding that “restricting foreign correspondents and closing news channels indicates a shift away from democratic values.”
“We are deeply concerned,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, program director for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
“Israel’s efforts to censor Al Jazeera severely undermine the public’s right to information about a war that has upended the lives of so many people in the region,” he said in a statement. “Al Jazeera journalists must be allowed to report at this critical time, and always.”
Four Al Jazeera journalists were among at least 116 journalists and media workers killed since the war in Gaza began, marking the deadliest period for journalists since the Committee to Protect Journalists began collecting data in 1992. The committee said it was still investigating 130 other cases of journalists being killed, detained and possibly injured, but added that “many of them are difficult to document in these harsh conditions.”
