Israel has ordered the local offices of Al Jazeera’s satellite news network to close, escalating a long–running feud between the broadcaster and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard–line government.

The Associated Press says the extraordinary order, which includes confiscating broadcast equipment, preventing the broadcast of the channel’s reports and blocking its websites, is believed to be the first time Israel has ever shuttered a foreign news outlet.

Al Jazeera went off Israel’s main cable provider in the hours after the order.

The network has reported the Israeli–Hamas war nonstop since the militants’ initial cross–border attack October 7th.

It has also maintained 24–hour coverage detailed coverage from within the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s grinding ground offensive that has killed and wounded members of its own staff.

AP says, “While including on–the–ground reporting of the war’s casualties, its Arabic arm often publishes verbatim video statements from Hamas and other militant groups in the region, drawing Netanyahu’s ire.”

In a statement shared on social media, Al Jazeera condemned the move as “a criminal act that violates human rights and the basic right to access of information”.

Al Jazeera correspondent Imran Khan also filed his last report from occupied East Jerusalem.

In it, he details aspects of the ban as passed by Israel.