Heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers raid Al Jazeera's office in the occupied West Bank and deliver a 45-day closure order.
Israeli forces have raided Al Jazeera's offices in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and imposed a 45-day closure in the latest attempt to restrict the news network's coverage.
Heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers entered the building and handed the closure order to the network's West Bank bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, early on Sunday. They did not explain the reasons for the decision.
“There is a court order to close Al Jazeera for 45 days,” a soldier told al-Omari as Al Jazeera Arabic broadcast the conversation live on television.
“I ask you to take all cameras and leave the office right now,” the soldier said in Arabic.
Sunday's raid comes just months after the Israeli government banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel in May.
The initial closure order was also for 45 days, but has been renewed and Al Jazeera journalists are still unable to report from inside the country.
Speaking by phone from Ramallah on Sunday, Al Jazeera correspondent Nida Ibrahim said the raid and West Bank closure order “come as no surprise” after an earlier ban on reporting from inside Israel.
“We have heard Israeli officials threaten to close the office. We have heard the government discuss this, calling on the military ruler in the occupied West Bank to close and shut down the channel. But we [had] “I didn’t expect this to happen today,” Ibrahim said.
Media rights groups have criticized the Israeli government for its restrictions and attacks on journalists, particularly Palestinian reporters in Gaza, amid the ongoing war.
Since the start of the war in October last year, Israeli forces have killed 173 journalists, according to a count by the Gaza Government Press Office. They include Al Jazeera's Ismail al-Ghoul and Samer Abudaqa.
Al Jazeera's Arabic correspondent Ismail Abu Omar was also seriously injured in an Israeli strike in February.
However, the attacks on Al Jazeera journalists occurred before the war in Gaza.
In 2022, veteran Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli forces while she was reporting from Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
A year earlier, the Israeli army also bombed a tower housing the network's offices in Gaza.
Al Jazeera condemned the ban on reporting inside Israel earlier this year, calling it “a criminal act that violates human rights and the basic right of access to information.”
“Israel’s continued suppression of the free press, seen as an effort to conceal its actions in the Gaza Strip, contravenes international and humanitarian law,” the network said in a statement in May.
“Israel’s direct attacks and killings of journalists, arrests, intimidation and threats will not deter Al Jazeera from fulfilling its commitment to cover the situation.”
Sunday's raid highlights Israel's tight control over the occupied West Bank, including areas supposedly under Palestinian Authority jurisdiction, such as Ramallah.
This comes two days after the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to end the Israeli occupation.
