Israel forces raid Al Jazeera TV in West Bank, order 45-day closure

RAMALLAH

Global news channel Al Jazeera said on Sunday that armed and masked Israeli forces raided its office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

Al Jazeera aired footage of Israeli troops live on its Arabic-language channel ordering the office to be shut for 45 days. It followed an order issued in May that saw Israeli police raid Al Jazeera's broadcast position in East Jerusalem, seizing equipment there, preventing its broadcasts in Israel and blocking its websites.

"There is a court ruling for closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days," an Israeli soldier told Al Jazeera's West Bank bureau chief Walid al-Omari in a conversation broadcast live on the network.

"I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment," the soldier said, according to the footage.

Omari said the order accused the network of "incitement to and support of terrorism,” according to Al Jazeera.

"Targeting journalists this way always aims to erase the truth and prevent people from hearing the truth," Omari said.

It was the latest salvo in a long-running feud between the broadcaster and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government which has worsened during the war in Gaza.

Since the war began last October, Al Jazeera has aired continuous on-the-ground reporting on the effects of Israel's campaign in the besieged strip.

The Israeli military has repeatedly accused journalists from the Qatari-based network of links to Hamas or its ally Islamic Jihad.

Four of Al Jazeera's journalists have been killed since the war in Gaza began, and the network's office in Gaza was bombed.