By The Telegraph (World News) | Created at 2024-09-22 08:40:33 | Updated at 2024-09-30 07:33:21
1 week ago
Israeli forces raided Al Jazeera’s Ramallah TV bureau in the West Bank on Sunday morning, with the broadcaster capturing the moment live.
The Qatar-based channel aired live footage of the Israeli troops storming the channel’s office, handing over a military closure order to one of the Al Jazeera TV staff, before the broadcast was disrupted.
The military order demanded the broadcaster close for 45 days, a move decried by the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate as “arbitrary”.
“There is a court ruling for closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days,” an Israeli soldier told Al Jazeera’s local bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, in the live footage. “I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment.”
Video showed what appeared to be Israel troops tearing down a banner on a balcony used by the Al Jazeera office. Al Jazeera said it bore an image of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist shot dead by Israeli forces in May 2022.
Israeli communication minister Shlomo Karhi later described the raid as affecting “the mouthpiece of Hamas and Hezbollah,” while the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate denounced the Israeli raid and order.
