Israeli soldiers stormed the Al Jazeera office in the occupied West Bank and ordered the bureau to close as the clampdown on the Doha-based media outlet intensified. Al Jazeera broadcasted videos of Israeli troops entering its Ramallah bureau on Sunday and closing the office for 45 days. 

This came weeks after an order was made by Israeli police to shut down Al Jazeera and raid its offices in occupied East Jerusalem in May, taking away its equipment, later blunt its broadcasts in Israel, and blocking its websites.

The network showed on the later dates of the operation, Israeli troops removing a banner from the balcony where the Al Jazeera television network office in Ramallah was located. Al Jazeera said it conveyed an image of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American TV journalist killed in the line of duty by Israeli troops in May 2022.

In the footage captured by the live transmission of Al Jazeera, an Israeli soldier informed the network’s local bureau chief, Walid al-Omari: “There is a court ruling for closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days.” “I request you to remove all cameras and leave the office now.”

Al-Omari said that Israeli troops stormed into the bureau and started seizing documents and equipment while tear gas and gunshots could be observed in the vicinity. In an interview with the AP later, al-Omari said that the Israeli military claimed that laws from the British Mandate of Palestine era were being used to justify its order to shut down the shop.

In response to the Israeli raid and order, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate expressed their condemnation. Last week, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said the raid was “deeply concerning.”

“Journalists must be protected and allowed to work freely,” they said. The network has covered Israel’s aggression on Gaza which has cost 41,000 people their lives. Al Jazeera has continued to operate round the clock in the Gaza Strip during the nine-yearlong Israeli ground incursion that has claimed the lives of several Al Jazeera staff members and journalists.