Some Israeli military personnel on Sunday morning stormed Qatari Al Jazeera TV office in the West Bank’s Ramallah city with a military order to close it for 45 days.
This was seen in a Qatar-based channel aired live footage showing the Israeli troops storming the channel’s office and handing over a military closure order to one of the Al Jazeera TV staff members before the broadcast was disrupted.
A statement issued by the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate condemned the Israeli move, saying “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.”
In May, Israeli authorities also raided a Jerusalem hotel room used by Al Jazeera as its office after the government decided to shut down the Al Jazeera TV station’s local operations, saying it threatened national security.
Al Jazeera also reported on Sunday that Israel’s military launched 400 attacks on Lebanon and Hezbollah fired rockets at the Ramat David base near the city of Haifa, in their largest exchange of fire since the war on Gaza began.
Heavily armed and masked Israeli troops raided Al Jazeera’s bureau in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and imposed a 45-day closure in their latest push to curtail the network’s coverage.
It was also reported that the Israeli military continued to pound southern Lebanon with air strikes on Sunday.
Hezbollah had also launched at least 115 projectiles into Israel, some hitting deep inside the country, using short-range missiles in addition to Katyusha rockets.
The UN’s coordinator for Lebanon warned that the region is on the brink of an “imminent catastrophe” resulting from war.
Three Palestinians, including two children, were shot by Israeli forces during a raid in the Old City of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
