Israel shuts down Associated Press live feed and seizes equipment

Associated Press has criticised the Israeli government after one of the news agency's live feeds was forcibly shut down and their equipment confiscated in southern Israel.

In a statement, AP said the interference was due to an "abusive use by the Israeli government of the country’s new foreign broadcaster law", which was passed in April primarily as a means of shutting down Al-Jazeera.

They said they had run afoul of the law because the Qatari broadcaster was one of the "thousands" of clients who used their footage.

"We urge the Israeli authorities to return our equipment and enable us to reinstate our live feed immediately so we can continue to provide this important visual journalism to thousands of media outlets around the world," said AP.

According to the news agency, officials from the Communications Ministry arrived at the AP location in the southern town of Sderot on Tuesday afternoon and seized the equipment.

They also handed them a piece of paper, signed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, alleging it was violating the foreign broadcaster law.