IDF soldiers raid Al Jazeera offices, present bureau chief with 45-day closure order
Israeli security forces raided the offices of the Al Jazeera news agency in Ramallah on Sunday morning, ordering the network’s closure for the next 45 days.
According to the Qatar-controlled Arabic-language outlet, Israeli soldiers entered the Palestinian Authority-administered enclave to present Al Jazeera‘s local bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, with an official closure order.
Al-Omar bemoaned the decision, accusing Israel of media suppression.
“Targeting journalists this way always aims to erase the truth and prevent people from hearing the truth,” he said.
Al Jazeera reporter Nida Ibrahim said the move “was not a surprise,” after an Israeli court authorized the country’s communications minister to shut down the network in Israeli territory.
The 45-day closures, which began in May 2024, has been renewed multiple times, preventing Al Jazeera from broadcasting in the country.
However, up until today, Al Jazeera’s operations in Ramallah were unaffected by the Israel ban.
“We’ve heard Israeli officials threatening to close down the bureau. We’ve heard the government discussing this, asking…to close down and shut down the channel. But we [had] not been expecting it to happen today,” Ibrahim said.
The Hamas-controlled media ministry in the Gaza Strip condemned the move, calling it a “heinous crime…that is a blatant violation of press and media freedom.”
Hamas’ concerns over freedom of speech are notable, as the terror group regularly tortures and murders Gazans who criticize them on social media.
Numerous Al Jazeera journalists have been revealed to be members of Hamas and other terror groups. Recently, an Al Jazeera employee confessed that he participated in the October 7th terror onslaught, along with Islamic Jihad terrorists.
During the ongoing war, several Al Jazeera journalists have been killed by Israeli airstrikes. While the network has tried to falsely spin that Israel is intentionally targeting its journalists, nearly all of those killed were traveling in vehicles alongside armed terrorists, or were armed themselves.
Photo: Flash90