Shreya Varanasi, Pune
Israeli Army raided the Qatar-based network, Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank during the early hours of Sunday morning. The soldiers ordered the shutdown of the bureau, months after it had banned the network from working inside Israel.
As reported by Reuters, the Qatar-based channel broadcasted the live footage of the troops storming inside the office and handing over the military closure order to one of the staff members. Soon after the footage was aired, the broadcast was disrupted. As the heavily armed and masked troops handed over the closure order, they did not provide a reason for the action.
The conversation between the channel’s staff and the soldiers was heard during the live broadcast. During the conversation, one of the soldiers can be heard saying that a court ruling has been passed to close down Al Jazeera for 45 days. Further, the soldier can also be heard saying in Arabic, “I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment”.
Al Jazeera’s bureau chief Walid al-Omari, who was handed the closure order, said that it accused the news channel of ‘incitement to and support of terrorism’. He further revealed that the soldiers confiscated the bureau’s cameras before leaving.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, in a statement, said it was deeply alarmed by Israel’s raid and that the effort to censor Al Jazeera undermines people’s right to information about the war. On the platform X, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in a brief statement said it ‘denounces Israel’s relentless assault’ on the Qatari news channel.
Earlier this year in May, a Jerusalem hotel room used by Al Jazeera as its office was raided by Israeli authorities. This move came after the government decided to shut down the channel’s local operations stating it was a threat to national security.
Last month, Israel announced that it had killed Al Jazeera journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul in an airstrike in Gaza, claiming he was a Hamas operative involved in the October 7 attack on Israel. The IDF claimed Al-Ghoul was a member of the special Nukhba unit that participated in the October 7 strike and taught Hamas operatives how to record operations.
On the other hand, Al Jazeera denounced what it called “baseless allegations” that sought to justify the premeditated killing of their journalists.