Israeli police raid Al Jazeera offices as broadcaster is ordered to close its local operation

Israel ordered the local offices of Qatar’s Al Jazeera satellite news network in Israel to close on Sunday, escalating a long-running feud between the broadcaster and prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s hard-line government as Doha-mediated ceasefire negotiations with Hamas hang in the balance.

The extraordinary order, which includes confiscating broadcast equipment, preventing the broadcast of the channel’s reports and blocking its websites, is believed to be the first time Israel has ever shut a foreign news outlet.

The network has reported the Israeli-Hamas war nonstop since the militants’ initial cross-border attack on October 7th and has maintained 24-hour coverage in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s grinding ground offensive that has killed and wounded members of its own staff.

While including on-the-ground reporting of the war’s casualties, its Arabic arm often publishes verbatim video statements from Hamas and other militant groups in the region, drawing Mr Netanyahu’s ire.

How Slovakia’s poisonous politics left prime minister fighting for his life

---

Putin and Xi Jinping stress their shared perception of threat the US poses to their interests

---

Kharkiv attack a sign of worse to come unless Ukraine and West move fast

---

‘I don’t think the West really understands’: A Ukrainian writer on his journey from torture camp to the front line

---

“Al Jazeera reporters harmed Israel’s security and incited against soldiers,” Mr Netanyahu said in a statement. “It’s time to remove the Hamas mouthpiece from our country.”

Al Jazeera issued a statement saying it will “pursue all available legal channels through international legal institutions in its quest to protect both its rights and journalists, as well as the public’s right to information”.

Immediately after the announcement, Al Jazeera’s English arm began broadcasting a pre-recorded message from one of its correspondents from a hotel the channel has used for months in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians hope to one day have for their future state.

The decision threatens to heighten tensions with Qatar at a time when the Doha government is playing a key role in mediation efforts to halt the war in Gaza, along with Egypt and the United States.

Qatar has had strained ties with Mr Netanyahu in particular since he made comments suggesting that Qatar is not exerting enough pressure on Hamas to prompt it to relent in its terms for a truce deal. Qatar hosts Hamas leaders in exile at a political office in Doha.

The sides appeared to be close to striking a deal, but multiple previous rounds of talks have ended with no agreement.

In a statement on Sunday, Hamas condemned the Israeli government order, calling on international organisations to take measures against Israel.

Senior Israeli officials ramped up pressure on Hamas on Sunday, saying Israel would refuse any permanent end to hostilities and threatening a new onslaught “in the very near future” if the militant organisation did not accept recently proposed terms for a ceasefire.

In a televised address, Binyamin Netanyahu once more rejected Hamas’s demands for a definitive end to the war in Gaza, saying that any permanent ceasefire would allow the group to remain in power and pose a continuing threat to Israel.

Speaking a day after thousands of people again rallied in Tel Aviv demanding a deal to free the remaining Israeli captives, Mr Netanyahu said his government had “been working around the clock to formulate an agreement that would return our hostages”.

Hours later, Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said Hamas did not appear to be serious about reaching a ceasefire deal. If a deal is not reached, he added, this would lead Israel to launch an often-threatened offensive into Rafah, a reported Hamas stronghold where about a million people displaced from elsewhere in Gaza have sought shelter, “in the very near future”. – AP, Guardian