Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Sunday that his cabinet had voted to shut down the Israeli operations of Al Jazeera, the Qatari-based network that is a major source of news in the Arab world and has often highlighted civilian suffering in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas.
Mr. Netanyahu accused Al Jazeera, which has long had a tense relationship with Israel, of harming Israel’s security and inciting violence against its soldiers. Israeli officials did not immediately provide examples of Al Jazeera content it believed posed a threat.
In a statement in Arabic, Al Jazeera called the decision a “criminal act.” “Israeli’s suppression of the free press to cover up its crimes has not deterred us from performing our duty,” the network said.
The initial shutdown order is for 45 days, with an option of an extension of another 45 days, according to an official at the Ministry of Communications. The order focuses on halting Al Jazeera’s ability to transmit from and be seen within Israel; it was not immediately clear whether the closure could affect the network’s reporting in Gaza and the West Bank.
Mr. Netanyahu has previously called the network a “mouthpiece” for Hamas, the armed group that controls Gaza and that led the cross-border attacks on Oct. 7 that set off the war.
Journalism organizations denounced the closure, which had been under discussion in Israel for weeks, as a blow to press freedom. Reporters Without Borders said in a statement in Arabic that it strongly condemned the decision, which it called repressive. The Foreign Press Association said Israel had joined “a dubious club of authoritarian governments” that have banned the station.
The move was a rare one for the Israeli government, though it also shuttered a Lebanese channel, Al Mayadeen, in November, a little more than a month after the Oct. 7 attacks. Al Mayadeen is affiliated with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese organization that has been involved in tit-for-tat strikes across Israel’s border with Lebanon since the start of the war. It was closed for two months.
Israel’s communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, said in a video statement that Al Jazeera’s “equipment would be confiscated.”
There were signs that Israeli officials were moving quickly: HOT, Israel’s main cable provider, said it had stopped carrying the network, and the Israeli police said they had accompanied government officials who confiscated equipment at an Al Jazeera office at a hotel in East Jerusalem and closed it. Israel occupied predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and later annexed it. The Communications Ministry said in a statement that access to Al Jazeera’s internet sites would also be blocked, although they were still accessible on Sunday evening.
But the shutdown could have broader ramifications: Qatar, which helps fund the network, has been helping to mediate cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, along with Egypt and the United States. The Qatari government did not immediately comment on Israel’s action.
The National Unity party led by Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s war cabinet and a former military chief, said in a statement on Sunday that it supported the closing but that the timing was unfortunate because it could “sabotage” the delicate negotiations.
Mr. Gantz’s party said the timing stemmed from “political considerations,” possibly hinting at Mr. Netanyahu’s need to mollify hard-line members of his party and his right-wing governing coalition.
Mr. Netanyahu said on social media that the government under his leadership had decided unanimously to halt the station’s operations. “The incitement channel Al Jazeera will be shut down in Israel,” he said.
The vote came after Israeli lawmakers passed a bill last month allowing the government to temporarily close foreign media outlets that Mr. Netanyahu determined were undermining national security.
Early in the war, Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, said Al Jazeera’s content presented a danger to national security. Other Israeli security branches, including the military, also supported limitations on the channel’s operations, according to an official government document outlining the legal opinion of Israel’s National Security Council. But the full Shin Bet evaluation was classified, the document said.
Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language coverage has frequently come under criticism by Israel, which accuses it of amplifying Hamas’s perspective and reporting uncritically on its calls for violence. On Oct. 7, the day of the attacks from Gaza, Al Jazeera repeatedly covered statements from Hamas officials calling for a violent uprising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
By law, the government’s action must be approved by a district court judge. Within three days of the closure order’s going into effect, the court can rule to change it or the length of the shutdown.
The war in Gaza has taken a toll on the network’s own employees and their families. In October, Wael al-Dahdouh, the Gaza bureau chief of Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language service, was told live on air that his wife, a son, daughter and infant grandson had been killed in central Gaza, where they had been sheltering. In January, his eldest son was killed in an Israeli airstrike, according to the authorities in Gaza.
Liam Stack, Adam Rasgon and Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting.
