Jerusalem, 01 April 2024 (Anadolu News)

Israel’s Knesset on Monday passed legislation allowing the closure of the Al Jazeera television.  The law was passed 71 to 10 in its second and third readings in the Knesset plenum. The first reading of the bill was passed on Feb. 12.

Under the bill, the communications minister will be empowered to shut down foreign networks operating in Israel and confiscate their equipment if the defense minister identifies that their broadcast poses “an actual harm to the state’s security.”

Following the passage of the law, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi vowed that the Qatari-funded Al Jazeera channel would be closed down “in the coming days.”

Early Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “immediately act to close Al Jazeera” following the bill’s passage in the Knesset.

The US described the passage of the bill to close Al Jazeera as “concerning. We believe in the freedom of the press. It is critical. It is critically important. And the United States supports the critically important work journalists around the world do and that includes those who are reporting in the conflict in Gaza,” White House Spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said during a press briefing.

Al Jazeera has an office in Israel and a team of correspondents working year-round, including covering Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 32,850 people since Oct. 7, 2023.

One more Palestinian journalist was killed in the Gaza Strip, taking the overall death toll from Israel’s ongoing offensive to 138 since last October, according to Gaza’s government media office on Monday.

Mohammad Abu Skheil was killed in an Israeli raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the media office said in a statement.

Despite the Israeli army’s destruction of scores of mosques in the Gaza Strip, the call to prayer (Adhan) still resonates from these houses of worship at its designated times.

In northern Gaza, the minaret of the Masjid al-Awda still stands tall, though the Israeli airstrikes destroyed the mosque during the ongoing war since Oct. 7, 2023.

Thousands of Israelis began gathering on Sunday in front of the parliament or Knesset building in Jerusalem to demand a hostage swap deal with Hamas and early elections, an Israeli media outlet said.

The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported yesterday that thousands of Israelis from all over the country began to gather in front of the Knesset building in Jerusalem to demand a hostage swap deal and early elections. Opposition leader Yair Lapid will address the protesters, who have planned to set up hundreds of tents in front of the Knesset after the demonstration ends, to stage sit-ins every day until the end of the week, the daily said.

Israeli police have raised their alert level in anticipation of the massive protest.

Families of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip threatened on Saturday that if a hostage swap deal with Hamas is not reached soon, “we will burn the country.”

The families held a news conference in Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Square and said that “there is a deal on the table that can be made,” according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

They refused to stand or plead, threatening to “burn the country” if a deal was not reached, the daily said. The families and thousands of protesters chanted: “Agree now,” according to the daily.

Earlier Saturday, the families blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for impeding negotiations. They have no choice but to work on replacing Netanyahu as soon as possible to reach an agreement with Hamas, the families said.

Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported that police have deployed large forces near the Knesset to deal with any untoward incidents. Earlier on Saturday evening, broadcaster Al-Qahera News reported, citing a security source, that “the resumption of cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas is scheduled for Sunday in Cairo… amid joint Egyptian-Qatari efforts to make progress in the negotiations,” without providing any further details.

Qatar, Egypt, and the US are trying to reach a hostage swap deal and a cease-fire in Gaza, as the first pause lasted only a week in late November last year, which resulted in limited aid entering the Gaza Strip, as well as exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, mostly women and children detained in Israeli jails.

Tel Aviv currently holds at least 9,100 Palestinian prisoners in its jails, while there are an estimated 134 Israeli hostages in Gaza. Hamas has announced the death of 70 of them in random Israeli airstrikes. Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas which killed some 1,200 people.

Nearly 32,800 Palestinians have since been killed and 75,300 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which on Thursday asked Israel to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.

The new Palestinian government, led by Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, should prepare for holding legislative and presidential elections in all Palestinian governorates, especially in East Jerusalem, President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday.

Abbas’s remarks came on the occasion of the new government’s swearing-in ceremony, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. The new Palestinian government was sworn in on Sunday evening, succeeding the government of Mohammed Shtayyeh who resigned in February.