Dubai, Sep 22: Israeli troops raided the offices of the satellite news network Al Jazeera in the Israeli-occupied West Bank early Sunday, ordering the bureau to shut down amid a widening campaign by Israel targeting the Qatar-funded broadcaster as it covers the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera aired footage of Israeli troops live on its Arabic-language channel ordering the office to be shut for 45 days. It follows an order issued in May that saw Israeli police raid Al Jazeera’s broadcast position in East Jerusalem, seizing equipment there, preventing its broadcasts in Israel and blocking its websites.
The move marked the first time Israel has ever shuttered a foreign news outlet operating in the country.
However, Al Jazeera has continued operating in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, territories that the Palestinians hope to have for their future state.
Israel acknowledges
raid on Al Jazeera
The Israeli military acknowledged conducting the raid 12 hours later, alleging without providing evidence that the newsroom was “being used to incite terror, to support terrorist activities and that the channel’s broadcasts endanger … security and public order”.
Al Jazeera denounced Israel’s “unfounded accusations” as it continued broadcasting live from Amman, Jordan, even as Israeli troops welded shut its office doors in Ramallah and confiscated its equipment.
“Al Jazeera will not be intimidated or deterred by efforts to silence its coverage,” it said.
Armed Israeli troops entered the office and told a reporter live on air that it would be shut down, saying that staff needed to leave immediately. The network later aired what appeared to be Israel troops tearing down a banner on a balcony used by the Al Jazeera office. Al Jazeera said it bore an image of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist shot dead by Israeli forces in May 2022.
Al Jazeera’s local bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, later told the AP that the Israeli military cited laws dating back to the British Mandate of Palestine to support its closure order.
The Palestinians secured limited self-rule in Gaza and parts of the occupied West Bank through the 1993 Oslo agreements. While Israel occupies and controls vast areas of the West Bank, Ramallah is under full Palestinian political and security control, making the Israeli raid on the Al Jazeera office that much more surprising.
The network has reported on the Israeli-Hamas war nonstop since the militants’ initial cross-border attack on October 7. Al Jazeera has maintained 24-hour coverage in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s grinding ground offensive that has killed and wounded members of its staff.
It remained unclear whether the Israeli military would target Al Jazeera’s operation in Gaza as well.
While including on-the-ground reporting of the war’s casualties, Al Jazeera’s Arabic arm often publishes verbatim video statements from Hamas and other regional militant groups.
That has led to Israeli claims by officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that the network has “harmed Israel’s security and incited against soldiers”.
Those claims have been vehemently denied by Al Jazeera, whose main funder, Qatar, has been key in negotiations between Israel and Hamas to reach a cease-fire to end the war. (AP)
