Israeli Forces Raid Al Jazeera’s West Bank Bureau In Latest Attack On The Press

Israeli troops raided Al Jazeera’s offices in the occupied West Bank early Sunday, the government’s latest attack on press freedom and specifically the Qatar-based news network, which has long reported on the Israeli military’s actions and intensely covered the past year’s campaigns in occupied Palestinian territories and surrounding countries.

More than 20 heavily armed and masked Israeli forces stormed into the Al Jazeera offices in Ramallah and gave bureau chief Walid al-Omari a military order to shut everything down for 45 days, as shown in footage of the raid that the network aired on its Arabic-language channel. Troops carrying out the overnight raid said staff had 10 minutes to gather their belongings, leave behind press equipment and evacuate the office ― seizing al-Omari’s microphone while he was live on air outside the building.

Israeli authorities accused Al Jazeera of using the newsroom to “incite terror” and serving as a “mouthpiece” for Hamas and Hezbollah, but did not provide any evidence to back up the claims. The network fervently denounced the “unfounded allegations,” saying that its journalists “will not be intimidated” by Israeli forces’ “criminal act.”

“Israel’s ongoing suppression of the free press is blatantly aimed at concealing its actions in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, in contravention of international and humanitarian law,” the network said in a statement on Sunday. “Israel’s direct targeting and killing of journalists, along with arrests, intimidation and threats, will not deter Al Jazeera from its commitment to coverage.”

After the hourslong raid, network employees said soldiers welded the Ramallah bureau’s doors shut. Ramallah sits in the occupied West Bank’s Area A, which