Yair Lapid slams shutdown of Associated Press feed as ‘act of madness’

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has denounced the seizure of a camera and broadcasting equipment belonging to The Associated Press (AP) as an “act of madness”.

"This is not Al Jazeera, this is an American media outlet that has won 53 Pulitzer Prizes,” Lapid said on social media platform X.

“This government behaves as if it has decided to make sure at all costs that Israel will be swayed all over the world. They went crazy," he said. 

The Israeli government shut down one of the AP’s live feeds in the southern town of Sderot on Tuesday afternoon, saying the US media broadcaster had run afoul of the law because the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera was one of the “thousands” of clients who used their footage.