VOA News | Sunday, May 5, 2024 
Israeli police raid Al Jazeera office in east Jerusalem, confiscate equipment

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli police Sunday raided a hotel room used by Qatari-owned TV station Al Jazeera as its de facto office after Israel’s decision to shut down the network’s local operations, an Israeli official and an Al Jazeera source told the Reuters news agency. Video posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, showed plainclothes officers taking down camera equipment at the east Jerusalem hotel room set up for broadcast operations, according to an Al Jazeera source. In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his decision to close Al Jazeera’s offices in Jerusalem, effective immediately. “After discussion by the Security Cabinet and pursuant to my directive, today the Government discussed closing Al Jazeera broadcasts in Israel.” Netanyahu’s Cabinet announced it unanimously approved shuttering the network’s operations in Israel for as long as the war in Gaza continues and, on the grounds the Qatari television network threatens national security. The Israeli communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, signed the orders. “We will take immediate action against those who use freedom of the press to harm the security of Israel and IDF soldiers and incite to terrorism in time of war. There will be no freedom of expression for Hamas’s mouthpieces in Israel. Al Jazeera will be closed immediately, and its equipment will be confiscated,” he said in the statement...Read more