Israeli forces raid Al Jazeera bureau in West Bank, order 45-day closure

CAIRO – Israeli forces raided the bureau of media network Al Jazeera in the West Bank city of Ramallah early on the morning of Sept 22, issuing it with a military order to shut down operations.

The Qatar-based channel aired live footage of Israeli troops storming its office and handing over a military closure order to Ramallah bureau chief Walid Al-Omari forcing the bureau to close for 45 days.

“There is a court ruling for closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days,” an Israeli soldier told Mr Al-Omari, the network reported, citing the conversation that was broadcast live.

“I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment,” the soldier said.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the order was signed after an intelligence assessment determined that the offices were being used “to incite terror, to support terrorist activities”.

“The channel’s broadcasts endanger the security and public order in both the area and the State of Israel as a whole,” it said.

Al Jazeera called the raid “a criminal act” and held the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for the safety of its journalists, it said in a statement.

The network added that it would take legal action to protect it rights and promised to continue its coverage.

“Al Jazeera rejects the draconian actions, and the unfounded allegations presented by Israeli authorities to justify these illegal raids,” it said.

Mr Al-Omari said the order he received accused Al Jazeera of “incitement to and support of terrorism”, and he said the soldiers confiscated the bureau’s cameras before leaving.

Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi confirmed the closure in a statement that called Al Jazeera “the mouthpiece” of Gaza’s Hamas and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah.

“We will continue to fight in the enemy channels and ensure the safety of our heroic fighters” he said.

In a statement, the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate condemned the Israeli move, saying “this arbitrary military decision is considered a new violation against journalistic and media works, which have been exposing the occupation’s crimes against the Palestinian people”.

The move was the latest

Israeli action against Al Jazeera

.

Last week, Israel’s government announced it was revoking the press credentials of Al Jazeera journalists in the country, four months after banning the channel from operating inside Israel.

The shutdown had not affected broadcasts from the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, from which Al Jazeera still covers Israel’s war with Palestinian militant group Hamas.

In Israel’s crosshairs

The Israeli military has repeatedly accused journalists from the Qatari network of being “terrorist agents” in Gaza affiliated with Hamas or its ally, Islamic Jihad.

Al Jazeera denies the Israeli government’s accusations and claims that Israel systematically targets its employees in the Gaza Strip.

In May, the Israeli authorities

raided a Jerusalem hotel room

used by Al Jazeera as its office after the government decided to shut down the Al Jazeera TV station’s local operations, saying it threatened national security.

The network, which says it has no affiliation with militant groups, has provided on-the-ground coverage of Israel’s nearly year-long military offensive in Gaza and of a parallel surge in violence in the West Bank.

Unrest has mounted there since

the start of the Gaza war

, with regular sweeps by Israeli forces that have involved thousands of arrests, regular gun battles between security forces and Palestinian fighters, Palestinian street attacks and attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinian communities.

Al Jazeera, which is funded in part by the Qatari government, has previously rejected accusations that it harmed Israel’s security as a “dangerous and ridiculous lie” that puts its journalists at risk.

It has accused the Israeli authorities of deliberately targeting and killing several of its journalists, including Mr Samer Abu Daqqa and Mr Hamza Al-Dahdooh,

both killed in Gaza during the conflict

. Israel has said it does not target journalists.

Qatar established Al Jazeera in 1996 and views the network as a way to bolster its global profile.

Qatar, along with Egypt and the United States, has mediated ceasefire negotiations under which Israel recovered some of those taken hostage on Oct 7 in a Hamas-led attack on Israel.

The internationally recognised Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under Israeli occupation. REUTERS, AFP