The decision to suspend the Qatar-funded network comes after Israel closed two of its offices, saying it was a “hamas mouthpiece.”
The Palestinian Authority has suspended Al Jazeera’s operations in the occupied West Bank, several months after Israel closed its office in Ramallah over security concerns. “national security”.
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, the decision to freeze the channel’s activities was taken on Wednesday due to “incentive material”.
The Palestinian Authority, which controls the Palestinian territory in the West Bank, also criticized the channel for “misleading and provocative reporting”.
It had already banned Al Jazeera from covering Jenin, a northern West Bank governorate where Palestinian security forces have recently battled Palestinian armed groups linked to Hamas.
Reacting to the decision, Al Jazeera accused the Palestinian Authority of “attempting to hide the truth about events in the occupied territories, in particular what is happening in Jenin and its camps”.
In a statement released Thursday, Al Jazeera declared itself “shocked by this decision” and called on the Palestinian Authority to reverse its decision.
The channel was already banned by Israel
This new setback for Al Jazeera comes just months after Israeli troops raided the channel’s West Bank premises, seizing equipment and ordering its office to close.
The September raid in the Palestinian West Bank city of Ramallah followed Israel’s decision in May to ban Al Jazeera from working in the country.
Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi called the channel “spokesperson for Hamas and Hezbollah”which Al Jazeera vigorously denied.
The channel’s relations with Israeli authorities became strained after the death of one of its journalists, Shireen Abu Akleh, in Jenin in May 2022. The Israeli army admitted that there was a “strong possibility” that the journalist was killed by one of his soldiers.
The channel continues to report on the situation in Gaza, where more than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the start of the war against Hamas following the deadly attacks of October 7, 2023.
Over the past 15 months, tensions have escalated in the West Bank between Israeli settlers and Palestinians.