Israel’s communications minister has ordered that a camera and broadcasting equipment seized from The Associated Press (AP) news agency in southern Israel should be returned.
Israeli officials had on Tuesday confiscated the items from the US news organisation and accused it of violating a new media law by providing images to the Qatari-owned media network Al Jazeera – which Israel has previously called „a Hamas mouthpiece”.
The AP affair took place four days after the ministry closed Al Jazeera’s offices in occupied East Jerusalem, stopped the network’s broadcasts on Israeli cable and satellite companies, and blocked access to its websites in Israel.
Officials from the Communications Ministry arrived at the AP location in the southern town of Sderot on Tuesday afternoon and seized the equipment. They handed The AP a piece of paper, signed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, alleging it was violating the country’s foreign broadcaster law.
„I have now ordered to cancel the action and return the equipment to the AP”, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said late on Tuesday on X.
Karhi said the Ministry of Defence will undertake a review of news outlets’ positioning of live video of Gaza.
Shortly before the equipment was seized, the AP was broadcasting a general view of famine-struck northern Gaza, where Israeli forces continue to press a ground and aerial assault.
The seizure followed a verbal order Thursday to cease the live transmission – which the AP refused to do, saying that it complies with Israel’s military censorship rules, which prohibit broadcasts of details like troops movements that could endanger soldiers. The live shot has generally shown smoke rising over the besieged territory.
The move was reviled by the White House, the UN, and important organizations protecting the principles of journalism and rights of journalists around the world.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid decried the move as „an act of madness”.
Hamas of course also denounced the move, saying it was a „recurring, arbitrary and oppressive act” against press freedom, and that it represented an attempt to „cover up crimes” carried out by Israeli forces against Palestinians.
