Israel orders closure of Al Jazeera West Bank office for 45 days

Israeli forces have raided the offices of Al Jazeera news channel in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, and ordered the channel to close for an initial period of 45 days.

Armed and masked Israeli soldiers entered the building early Sunday morning during a live broadcast.

Viewers watched as troops delivered the closure order to Walid al-Omari, the network’s West Bank chief, who read the order live on air.

Israel raided Al Jazeera’s Nazareth office in May and occupied East Jerusalem, describing the Qatari broadcaster as a threat to national security.

“Approaching journalists in this way always has the goal of erasing the truth and preventing people from hearing the truth,” Omari said in comments reported by his employer.

The soldiers confiscated the last microphone and camera on the street and forced Omari out of the office, Al Jazeera journalist Mohammad Alsaafin said.

Alsaafin wrote on social media about the raid that troops also removed a poster of Shireen Abu Aqla, an Al Jazeera reporter who was killed while reporting on an Israeli raid in the West Bank.

The network and witnesses said at the time that the Palestinian-American reporter had been shot by Israeli forces. Israel initially claimed she had been shot by a Palestinian, but concluded months later that there was a “strong probability” one of its soldiers had killed her.

Relations between the Qatari broadcaster and the Israeli government have long been tense, but have deteriorated dramatically since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.

Because foreign journalists were denied access to the Strip, Al Jazeera staffers working in the area were among the few reporters able to report on the war on the ground.

Israel has repeatedly labeled the network a terrorist mouthpiece, a charge Al Jazeera denies.

In April, the Israeli parliament passed a law giving the government the authority to temporarily shut down foreign broadcasters deemed a threat to national security during the war.

The ban is in effect for a period of 45 days, as revealed by Sunday’s raid, and can be extended.

In early May, Al Jazeera offices in Nazareth and occupied East Jerusalem were attacked separately.

Israel has not yet commented on Sunday’s operation.

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