STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Al Jazeera's bureau in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has closed after Israeli forces stormed its offices over the weekend. NPR's Aya Batrawy spoke with their bureau chief.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: From his office in Ramallah, Walid al-Omari oversaw Al Jazeera's coverage in Israel and the Palestinian territories. In his 20 years at the bureau, it had never been raided before. I ask him, why now?
WALID AL-OMARI: It seems that they closed Al Jazeera now because they're going to have new escalations in the West Bank. Not only the Israeli authorities, the military authorities - it's include also the settlers. Maybe they closed Al Jazeera now because they want to hide all these things.
BATRAWY: Over the phone, he tells me Israeli forces evicted staff, confiscated equipment and sealed the bureau shut with iron plates. Israel ordered it closed for 45 days - an order that can be extended. Here's al-Omari on Al Jazeera's English and Arabic channels the moment Israeli troops entered the bureau.
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AL-OMARI: (Through interpreter) The army says we have only 10 minutes to take our belongings and leave the office so they can shut it down.
BATRAWY: The Foreign Press Association in Israel and the Palestinian territories says the move undermines press freedoms. The Committee to Protect Journalists says Israeli forces have also killed more than 100 Palestinian journalists in Gaza during the war there, including five Al Jazeera reporters. Israel says the Qatar-based news network broadcasts terrorist propaganda and spreads messages that undermine Israeli security. Israel's prime minister says it's a mouthpiece of Hamas, the group that attacked Israel October 7. Israel's communications ministry told NPR a new law that halted Al Jazeera's work in Israel this year also gives the defense ministry powers to shut down the broadcaster in the West Bank. Al-Omari says the law's application in the occupied West Bank is questionable.
AL-OMARI: They want to kill the messenger and the message together.
BATRAWY: Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by an Israeli soldier while reporting in the West Bank in 2022. Al-Omari says now none of his reporters can go on air from there, but...
AL-OMARI: The coverage will continue, even if they're going to arrest all the Al Jazeera staff. Al Jazeera in Qatar - they have enough power to - and facilities to continue, and they will continue.
BATRAWY: He says the network will use freelancers, on-air guests and news wire footage to keep reporting.
Aya Batrawy, NPR News, Dubai. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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