By Iyad Nabolsi
ISTANBUL (AA) - Hamas accused Israel on Tuesday of attempting to hide the Israeli army’s crimes in the Gaza Strip from the international community by shutting down a live feed of the Associated Press (AP) news agency showing a view of the enclave.
Officials from the Israeli Communications Ministry seized a camera and broadcasting equipment from the AP office in Sderot in southern Israel. They accused the news agency of violating Israel’s foreign broadcaster law by providing images to the Doha-based Al Jazeera television network.
In a statement, Hamas characterized the Israeli authorities’ seizure of AP’s equipment as a “random and oppressive action against press freedom.”
It said this action is intended to “conceal Israel’s crimes and violations against the Palestinian people from the global public.”
Hamas underscored that Israel’s actions are “fascist and expose the falsity of its assertions of respecting human rights and press freedom, branding it as one of the most repressive regimes in the world.”
The AP condemned Israel’s seizure of its broadcasting equipment, labeling it an “abusive use” of the country’s new foreign broadcaster law amid an onslaught launched by the Israeli army on the besieged Gaza Strip.
Last month, the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, passed a law that allows the closure of foreign networks operating in Israel and the confiscation of their equipment if the defense minister identifies that their broadcasts pose “an actual harm to the state’s security.”
In the first application of the law, Israeli authorities raided the offices of Al Jazeera television and confiscated their equipment.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in the enclave.
More than 35,600 Palestinians have been killed, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and nearly 79,900 others injured since last October following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.
More than seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered it to ensure that its forces do not commit acts of genocide and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio