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Israeli authorities ordered the blocking of Qatar-based Al Jazeera and Lebanon-based Al Mayadeen television networks across digital platforms, TV screens and YouTube, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi announced Sunday.
The ban prohibits broadcasting and internet companies, and YouTube from providing services to Al Jazeera and Al Mayadeen inside Israel.
"From today, they (Al Jazeera) and Al Mayadeen will be blocked in Israel—both on their websites, on television, and on YouTube! And at the discretion of the Minister of Defense, it will also be possible to disrupt them on satellite," Karhi said on X.
Karhi said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government approved the expanded ban, citing an amended law that enabled the move. He added that Al Jazeera had already been "almost completely" blocked under the revised legislation.
The decision will remain in force for 90 days, according to Israeli daily Haaretz.
The measures expand restrictions imposed more than two years ago under the "Al Jazeera law," which bans broadcasting of the two channels inside Israel, Haaretz reported.
The Knesset last month approved an amendment allowing the communications minister to shut down foreign media outlets regardless of whether a state of emergency has been declared.
Under the law, if the prime minister determines, based on security assessments, that a foreign broadcaster harms state security, the communications minister may issue orders subject to Cabinet approval. Measures can include halting broadcasts, closing offices, confiscating equipment and blocking websites.
Israel barred Al Jazeera from operating in May 2024 at the height of Israel's war on Gaza, a decision repeatedly extended over the network's coverage. Israeli forces stormed Al Jazeera's offices in the occupied West Bank's Ramallah in September 2024, confiscating equipment and documents.
In December 2024, the Israeli parliament approved a two-year extension of the Al Jazeera law.
Al Jazeera Arabic's bureau chief for Jerusalem and Ramallah, Walif al-Omari, said the latest decision came nine days after Israel's Ministry of Communications said Israeli security services and military continued to believe the network's broadcasts were "detrimental to the security" of Israel.
In May 2024, Al Jazeera accused Netanyahu of making "slanderous accusations" against the network and said Israel's suppression of a free press stood "in contravention of 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 every legal step," the network said in a statement.
Israel banned Al Mayadeen, which it describes as affiliated with Hezbollah, from operating in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories in November 2023.
Al Jazeera has been targeted by Israel for years. In 2017, Netanyahu threatened to shut down its Jerusalem office. An Israeli missile destroyed the building housing its Gaza office in 2021.
Many Al Jazeera journalists and their family members were among more than 200 Palestinian journalists killed during the Gaza conflict.
In May 2022, Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank. Israel initially denied but later admitted there was a "high possibility" that one of its soldiers had killed the journalist.
More than 71,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and over 171,000 others injured in the conflict since October 2023. The United Nations estimates the cost of Gaza reconstruction at approximately $70 billion.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Gaza.
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