Key Points
JERUSALEM (AP) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday vowed to shut down Al Jazeeras operations in Israel, calling it a terror channel" that spreads incitement, after parliament passed a law clearing the way for the closure..
Netanyahus pledge escalated Israels long-running feud against Al Jazeera but also threatened to heighten tensions with Qatar, which owns the channel, at a time when the Doha government is playing a key role in mediation efforts to halt the war in Gaza..
Those relations further deteriorated following the outbreak of Israels war against Hamas on Oct. 7, when the militant group carried out a cross-border attack in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage..
Al Jazeera is one of the few international media outlets to remain in Gaza throughout the war, broadcasting bloody scenes of airstrikes and overcrowded hospitals and accusing Israel of massacres..
Oren Persico, a staff writer at the Seventh Eye, an independent media watchdog website in Israel, said the law was a watered-down version of legislation sought by the countrys far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, due to pushback from legal experts..
