Heavily armed Israeli troops raid and close down Al Jazeera's West Bank office
Heavily armed Israeli forces stormed the Al Jazeera Arabic offices in the occupied West Bank during a live broadcast from its bureau in Ramallah in a pre-dawn raid on Sunday.
Dozens of troops entered the Qatar-based network’s offices after blowing up the building's iron gates, according to local reports.
The network aired a live broadcast showing an Israeli soldier handing a military court order to the bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, after they entered the building.
The soldier told Omari that a military order had been issued to close down the channel for 45 days, before asking everyone to exit the office within two minutes.
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Omari said the Israeli army had brought a truck to confiscate the network's cameras, documents and other devices.
The network condemned the raid against its journalists.
Staff from the network added that they feared Israel would destroy their archives during the raid, which are stored in the office.
Crackdown
Sunday’s raid came after the Israeli government in May banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel, as Israel continued its bombardment of the Gaza Strip and crackdown against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The initial closure was scheduled to last 45 days, but Israeli authorities renewed it, and Al Jazeera journalists are still unable to report from inside the country.
The network has moved most of its operations from Israel and the occupied West Bank to neighbouring Jordan, which continues broadcasting from Amman.
In a statement, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned the Israeli move.
“This arbitrary military decision is considered a new violation against journalistic and media works, which has been exposing the occupation’s crimes against the Palestinian people," it said.
“We affirm our full solidarity with Al Jazeera and place our headquarters and capabilities at the service of our colleagues working there.”
The Israeli army has repeatedly accused Al Jazeera of “terrorism” and operating a “terrorist network” - claims the network has denied.
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