Reports said Israeli troops stormed the Al Jazeera office in West Bank’s Ramallah, serving a 45-day closure order on the place. Heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers issued the order to the West Bank bureau chief for the network, Walid al-Omari, without giving a reason for the closure. The move comes against the backdrop of the May 2024 decision by Israel to ban the Al Jazeera news network from operating within Israel over security concerns.
This escalation comes after Israel had already accused Al Jazeera of having ties with Hamas-an allegation that the broadcaster also rejected. In August 2024, Israel said it had killed Al Jazeera journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul for being a Hamas operative responsible for the attacks of October 7, 2023. Al Jazeera has rejected these allegations calling them baseless and part of an attempt to justify killing journalists from the network.
It is an issue that raises grave questions about freedom of the press. Al Jazeera has criticized the Israeli government, from whom it received its latest rebuff-the May raid on a Jerusalem hotel room used by the network. The broadcaster continues to plead for its right to report freely and insists that Israeli restrictions violate both international and humanitarian law.
