Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Monday to enact a ban on broadcasts in Israel from news channel Al Jazeera using authority lawmakers have just voted to grant him

Jerusalem, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 1st Apr, 2024) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Monday to enact a ban on broadcasts in Israel from news channel Al Jazeera using authority lawmakers have just voted to grant him.

The potential ban is a fresh escalation in the running conflict between Israel‘s government and the Qatari channel during Israel‘s war with fighter groups in Gaza.

Israel claimed in January that Al Jazeera staff journalist and a freelancer killed in an air strike in Gaza were persona non grata.

The following month it said another journalist for the channel, wounded in a separate strike.

Al Jazeera has fiercely denied Israel‘s accusations and accused Israel of systematically targeting Al Jazeera employees in the Gaza Strip.

“The channel Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel. I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel’s activities,” Netanyahu said on X, formerly Twitter.

The law giving Netanyahu this authority, which passed on Monday by 70 votes to 10, carries the power to ban the broadcast of content from foreign channels but also allows the closing of their offices in Israel.

Netanyahu’s Likud party said he asked “to make sure that the law to close Al Jazeera will be approved this evening” in Israel‘s parliament, the Knesset.

Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in the Palestinian territory, Wael al-Dahdouh, was also wounded, in an Israeli strike in December that killed the network’s cameraman.

The war between Israel and fighter group began on October 7, that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel‘s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,845 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

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