The Palestinian Ministerial Committee had announced the temporary suspension of Al Jazeera’s operations in Palestine on January 1.
The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) security services have arrested Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Al-Atrash for his coverage of Israel’s brutal raid of Jenin, a city in the northern occupied West Bank.
The Qatar-based broadcaster reported on Thursday morning that the security forces arrested Al-Atrash from his home in the southern city of Hebron and took him to the Hebron Public Prosecution Office for interrogation.
The arrest came after the PA prevented him from covering Israel’s raid on Jenin, where at least 12 Palestinians and more than 40 others have been wounded since Tuesday, according to Palestine’s news agency Wafa.
Sources told Al Jazeera that Hebron’s public prosecutor refused to release Al-Atrash, and that the charges against him were related to his work “with a banned channel”.
The defence committee for Al-Atrash told Al Jazeera that all charges against Al-Atrash “have no legal basis”.
Suspension of Al Jazeera by Israel, PA
The Palestinian Ministerial Committee had announced the temporary suspension of Al Jazeera’s operations in Palestine on January 1.
In December, the PA launched an incitement and intimidation campaign against Al Jazeera for its coverage on the armed confrontations between Palestinian security forces and resistance groups in Jenin.
On December 24, Fatah, the faction controlling the PA, had accused the Qatar-based network of sowing divisions among Palestinians. Al Jazeera had condemned the “deplorable campaign” at the time.
The PA has faced repeated criticism and been accused of collaborating with the Israeli occupation in its violence against Palestinians.
The PA’s ban on Al Jazeera came months after Israeli occupation forces raided Al Jazeera’s bureau in Ramallah on September 22 and ordered it to shut down for 45 days. Israel has since renewed its decision to maintain the closure of the network’s office.
This raid came four months after the Israeli government shut down Al Jazeera’s office in Jerusalem and banned it from broadcasting for an initial period of 45 days, which it has also renewed several times since.