Al Jazeera's national closure was ordered by Israel; the Qatar-based news organization referred to this as a "criminal crime." The government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, decided to close the incitement channel Al Jazeera in Israel, he stated in a post on X.
The decision would be "executed immediately," according to Ofir Gendelman, the prime minister's spokesperson for the Arab world, who stated this on Sunday.
Gendelman announced in a post on X that Al Jazeera's websites will be blocked on the Internet, the network's broadcast equipment will be seized, its correspondents will not be allowed to work, and the channel will be dropped from cable and satellite television providers. Netanyahu was paraphrased by him as saying: "Al Jazeera reporters provoked IDF soldiers and damaged Israel's security." It is time to banish the Hamas spokesperson from our nation.
Israeli police and ISIS agents entering Al Jazeera's transmitting location in Jerusalem on Sunday. The decision made by the Israeli cabinet was denounced by Al Jazeera as a "criminal act," violating the right of individuals to obtain information.
It went on: "We did not let Israel's repression of the free press—which involved killing and detaining journalists—to distract us from our duties. Since the start of the Gaza war, almost 140 Palestinian journalists have lost their lives defending the truth. Since October 7, a number of the network's journalists in Gaza have suffered injuries or lost their lives.
The action was taken one month after Netanyahu threatened to close the nation's television network in response to the enactment of a broad bill that would have allowed the government to outlaw foreign networks that it deemed to be a threat to national security.
Early in April, Netanyahu declared on X that he planned to "act promptly in accordance with the new law" to put an end to the outlet us operations within the nation. Al Jazeera's operations have been criticized by Netanyahu's government for a long time, with accusations of anti-Israeli bias. Al Jazeera, which has been providing live coverage of Israel's battle against Hamas in Gaza, criticized the decision and vowed to keep up its "strong and professional coverage" in response.
The new law provided the prime minister and the minister of communications the power to order the temporary shutdown of foreign networks present in Israel. Human rights organizations fear that this power could have a significant impact on how the conflict in Gaza is covered by world media.
Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists both denounced the action at the time, calling it "an alarming escalation" and expressing "grave worry" over the new legislation. This action is a result of Saturday's negotiations in Cairo, which were intended to result in a cease-fire and hostage agreement.
Technical details of a possible deal have been worked out by the negotiators, but two Israeli sources believe the actual accord might take up to a week to complete. In the ongoing peace talks pertaining to the conflict, Qatar has been instrumental.
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