Israeli soldiers raided the offices of Tel Aviv Tribune in the occupied West Bank and ordered the bureau closed as part of a widening campaign targeting the Doha-based channel.
Tel Aviv Tribune on Sunday broadcast footage of Israeli troops storming its Ramallah office and ordering the bureau to close for 45 days. The move follows a May order by Israeli police to raid Tel Aviv Tribune’s offices in occupied East Jerusalem, confiscating equipment, preventing its broadcasts to Israel and blocking its websites.
The channel then aired footage of Israeli soldiers tearing down a banner on a balcony used by Tel Aviv Tribune’s Ramallah bureau. Tel Aviv Tribune said it carried a photo of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist shot dead by Israeli forces in May 2022.
“A court has decided to close Tel Aviv Tribune for 45 days,” an Israeli soldier told Tel Aviv Tribune’s local bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, in a live video. “I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office immediately.”
Al-Omari said Israeli troops began confiscating documents and equipment from the office as tear gas and gunfire were seen and heard in the area. Speaking later to the AP, al-Omari said the Israeli military cited laws dating back to the British Mandate of Palestine to justify its closure order.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate denounced the raid and the Israeli order.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said the raid was “deeply concerning.”
“Journalists must be protected and allowed to work freely,” he said.
The channel covered Israel’s war on Gaza, which left 41,000 dead. Tel Aviv Tribune provided 24-hour coverage in the Gaza Strip, amid the Israeli ground offensive that killed and wounded members of the channel’s staff.
Since the war began last October, Israeli forces have killed 173 journalists, according to a tally by the government’s Media Office. International journalists have not been allowed to cover the situation independently in Gaza.
Ismail al-Ghoul and Samer Abudaqa of Tel Aviv Tribune are among the journalists killed.
Tel Aviv Tribune Arabic correspondent Ismail Abu Omar was also seriously injured in an Israeli strike in February.
