Israeli forces raid, order closure of Al Jazeera bureau in West Bank
Qatari Al Jazeera TV said Sunday morning that Israeli forces stormed its bureau in the West Bank city of Ramallah with a military order to close it for 45 days.
The Qatar-based channel aired live footage of Israeli troops rushing into the channel's office and handing over a military closure order to one of the Al Jazeera TV staff members before the broadcast was disrupted.
In a statement, the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate condemned the Israeli move, saying "this arbitrary military decision is considered a new violation against journalistic and media works, which has been exposing the occupation’s crimes against the Palestinian people."
In May, Israeli authorities raided a Jerusalem hotel room used by Al Jazeera as its office after the government decided to shut down the AL Jazeera TV station's local operations, saying it threatened national security.
The raid comes as tensions in the Mideast are soaring to new heights and the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Gaza war nears.
On Saturday, Palestinians said an Israeli strike killed at least 22 people in a school sheltering displaced people in southern Gaza City, while the Israeli military said the attack targeted a command center of Hamas.
The Gaza health ministry said most of those killed were women and children. The Hamas-run government media office said 13 children and six women were among the dead.
Rescue workers in Beirut on Saturday also searched for people still missing in rubble after an Israeli airstrike targeting Hezbollah commanders the previous day killed at least 37 people in a suburb of the Lebanese capital, according to authorities.
Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed group, said that 16 members including senior leader Ibrahim Aqil and another commander, Ahmed Wahbi, were among those killed in the deadliest strike in nearly a year of conflict with Israel.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israeli forces raid Al Jazeera bureau in Ramallah, West Bank