Since May 2024, an Israeli law has banned the news network, citing a threat to national security, an allegation denied by Al Jazeera.
Published on January 25, 2026
Israel has extended by 90 days its ban on the operations of Al Jazeera Media Network and the closure of its offices in the country.
The order, signed by Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karahi and announced on Sunday, also prohibits broadcasting and internet companies, as well as YouTube, from providing services to the network in Israel.
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In May 2024At the height of Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted to close Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, weeks after the Israeli parliament passed a law authorizing the temporary shutdown of foreign channels deemed a “threat to national security.”
In September of the same year, Israeli forces also stormed Al Jazeera’s offices in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, confiscating equipment and documents and closing the channel’s office.
In December last year, the Israeli parliament approved a extension of the 2024 lawalso known as the “Al Jazeera law”, for an additional two years.
Al Jazeera Arabic bureau chief for Jerusalem and Ramallah, Walif al-Omari, said the latest Israeli move came nine days after Israel’s Communications Ministry said Israeli security services and the military continued to believe the network’s broadcasts were “damaging to the security” of Israel.
In May 2024, Al Jazeera accused Netanyahu of making “slanderous accusations” against the channel and said Israel’s suppression of a free press was “contrary to international and humanitarian law.”
“Al Jazeera reiterates that such slanderous accusations will not deter us from continuing our bold and professional coverage, and reserves the right to pursue all legal steps,” the Qatar-based channel said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes in Gaza.
Al Jazeera was targeted by Israel for years. In 2017, Netanyahu threatened to close his Jerusalem office, and an Israeli missile destroyed the building housing his Gaza office in 2021.
Many Al Jazeera journalists – and in several cases, their families – were among the more than 200 Palestinian journalists killed by Israel during its genocidal war on Gaza.
In May 2022, Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank. Israel initially denied it, but later admitted there was a “strong possibility” that one of its soldiers had killed the journalist, known for her on-the-ground reporting in the occupied Palestinian territories.
