Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera reported that Israeli forces raided its office in Ramallah, located in the occupied West Bank, and issued a closure order for 45 days. Heavily armed and masked soldiers entered the building early Sunday morning, handing the order to the network's West Bank bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, without providing a reason for the decision.

During the raid, an Israeli soldier told al-Omari, "There is a court ruling for closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days," and instructed him to "take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment."

This incident follows a series of actions against Al Jazeera by Israeli authorities, including a ban on its operations inside the country that was implemented in May, which officials claimed threatened national security. In the same month, Israeli forces also raided a hotel room in Jerusalem used by Al Jazeera as an office.

Al Jazeera condemned the closure, describing it as a "criminal act" that violates human rights and the fundamental right to access information. The network criticized Israel's ongoing suppression of the press, asserting that it seeks to conceal its actions in Gaza, which contravenes international and humanitarian law.

The tension escalated recently when Israel announced it had killed Al Jazeera journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul in an airstrike in Gaza, claiming he was a Hamas operative involved in the October 7 attack on Israel. The Israeli military stated that Al-Ghoul was part of Hamas' elite Nukhba unit and played a key role in military operations.

Al Jazeera, however, rejected these allegations, labeling them as baseless and an attempt to justify the killing of its journalists. The network expressed its intention to take legal action against those responsible for the accusations and the violence against its staff. Al-Ghoul and cameraman Ramy El Rify were killed while on assignment near the residence of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas chief, in Gaza City.