Armed and masked Israeli soldiers raided Al Jazeera’s bureau in the occupied West Bank and ordered it closed for 45 days.
Israeli forces raided and shut down Al Jazeera’s offices in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, in the latest push to curtail the news network’s coverage.
Heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers forced their way into the building and handed the 45-day closure order to Walid al-Omari, head of the network’s West Bank bureau, early Sunday.
They did not give a reason for this decision.
“There is a court order to shut down Al Jazeera for 45 days while Al Jazeera broadcasts the conversation live on Arabic TV,” a soldier told Al-Omari.
“I request you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this time,” the soldier said in Arabic.
Sunday’s raid comes months after the Israeli government banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel in May.
That initial closure order was for 45 days, but it was renewed and Al Jazeera journalists are still unable to report from inside the country.
Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, speaking by phone from Ramallah on Sunday, said the West Bank search and closure order was “not a surprise” after a previous ban on reporting from inside Israel.
“We have heard that Israeli authorities are threatening to close the bureau. We have heard that the government is discussing this with the military ruler in the occupied West Bank to close and close the channel. But we [had] I didn’t expect that to happen today,” Ibrahim said.
After the raid, al-Omari – the bureau chief – raised concerns about what Israeli soldiers would do to the office.
“Targeting journalists like this is always aimed at destroying the truth and preventing people from hearing the truth,” he said.
Gaza’s government media office also called Sunday’s Israeli move a “deafening scandal.”
“We call on all media organizations and groups dealing with human rights in the world to condemn this heinous crime … which is a flagrant violation of press and media freedom,” it said.
Media rights groups have condemned the Israeli government for its restrictions and attacks on journalists, particularly Palestinian reporters, amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
Gaza’s government media office said Israeli forces have killed 173 journalists since the war began in October last year. That includes Al Jazeera’s Ismail Al-Khol and Samar Abutaqah.
Al Jazeera Arab reporter Ismail Abu Omar was seriously injured in an Israeli attack in February.
However, attacks against Al Jazeera reporters predated the war in Gaza.
In 2022, Israeli forces killed senior Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Aghle while reporting from Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
A year ago, the Israeli military also bombed a tower that housed the network’s offices in Gaza.
Al Jazeera condemned the ban on reporting inside Israel earlier this year, calling it a “criminal violation of human rights and the fundamental right to access information”.
“Israel’s suppression of the independent press is seen as an attempt to cover up its activities in the Gaza Strip, which is contrary to international and humanitarian law,” the network said in a statement in May.
“Israel’s direct targeting and killing of journalists, arrests, intimidation and threats will not deter Al Jazeera from its commitment to reporting.”
Sunday’s raid highlighted Israel’s tight control over the occupied West Bank, including areas under Palestinian jurisdiction such as Ramallah.
It comes two days after the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to end the Israeli occupation.
Rami Khouri, a fellow at the American University of Beirut, said it was part of a long-standing Israeli policy of “real news about Palestinians or what the state of Israel is doing to Palestinians.”
But he told Al Jazeera that closing the bureau “will not prevent the world from learning what is happening to hundreds of brave Palestinian journalists and other foreign journalists in the West Bank and Israel.”
