Israel Extends Ban on Al Jazeera to its West Bank Office

Qatari news channel Al Jazeera announced that Israeli forces stormed its office in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, on Sunday and closed it for 45 days under a military order.

The Israeli government had revoked Al Jazeera journalists’ press credentials in the country the previous week, four months after banning the channel’s operations within Israel.

According to the channel, an Israeli officer informed the office’s director, Walid Al-Omari, of a “judicial decision to close Al Jazeera’s office for 45 days.” The conversation was broadcast live.

The officer, as shown in the footage, said, “I ask you to take all your cameras and leave the office immediately,” as heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers entered the office.

The channel noted that no justification was given for the closure order, while Al-Omari mentioned that the decision accused the channel of “supporting terrorism,” according to Al Jazeera, adding that “targeting journalists in this way is always aimed at erasing the truth and preventing people from hearing the truth.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has long been at odds with Al Jazeera, and tensions escalated following the outbreak of the Gaza war after Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7th.

The Israeli military has repeatedly accused the network’s correspondents in Gaza of being “terrorist agents” aligned with Hamas or Islamic Jihad, but Al Jazeera denies the Israeli government’s accusations, asserting that Israel systematically targets its staff in the Gaza Strip.

The media office of the Hamas-led government in Gaza condemned the raid on Al Jazeera’s office, calling it a “resounding scandal and a blatant violation of press freedom” in a statement.

In early April, the Israeli parliament passed a law allowing foreign media outlets to be banned if they jeopardize state security. On this basis, the Israeli government approved a decision on May 5th to ban Al Jazeera from broadcasting in Israel and close its offices for a renewable 45-day period. This ban was extended for the fourth time last week by a court in Tel Aviv.

However, this decision did not affect the channel’s broadcasting from the West Bank or Gaza Strip, where it continues to cover the ongoing war that has lasted for more than 11 months.

Al Jazeera correspondent Nida Ibrahim said the closure of the channel’s West Bank office was “not surprising” after the previous ban on news coverage from inside Israel, adding, “We heard Israeli officials threaten to close the office… but we didn’t expect it to happen today.”

Another Al Jazeera journalist said staff were prevented from covering the raid on the office and had their cameras confiscated. In May, the network described the ban imposed on it due to its coverage of the Gaza war as “criminal,” condemning in a statement the “Israeli criminal act infringing on human rights to access information.”