ALBAWABA - Israeli troops raided the offices of the Qatari news guru Al Jazeera in the West Bank city of Ramallah, delivering a 45-day closure order.
In a move to widen the crackdown on Al Jazeera offices in Palestine, packs of heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers forcefully stormed the offices of Al Jazeera TV network in Ramallah and handed the 45-day closure order to the network’s West Bank bureau chief Walid al-Omari early on Sunday.
al-Omari stated that the order accuses the news TV network of "incitement to and support of terrorism". Reports confirmed that prior to the raid, Israeli forces fired tear gas vicinity of the Al Jazeera bureau in Ramallah.
Al Jazeera reporter Jivara Budeiri stated that the soldiers confiscated their cameras and she fears that they may attempt to destroy the archives, which are stored in the office. Israeli military vehicles have left Ramallah after the raid.
The Israeli raid on Sunday comes just a few months after Al Jazeera was prohibited by the Israeli government from operating within Israel in May following the channel's extensive coverage of the brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza which killed 41,000+ people and injured almost 95,000 people.
Although the first 45-day closure order was extended, Al Jazeera journalists are still unable to report from within occupied territories.
The bureau chief, al-Omari, expressed worries about potential damage to the office by Israeli forces following the raid. "Targeting journalists this way always aims to erase the truth and prevent people from hearing the truth," he declared.
