Israeli officials to return confiscated camera of US news agency, AP
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Gaza: Israeli authorities may return the camera and broadcasting equipment that they have seized from the Associated Press ( AP) in southern Israel on Tuesday, The Guardian reported.
The officials accused the US-based wire service of violating the country’s new media law by supplying images to Qatar based Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera was forced shut down its offices in Israel on 5 May using new laws to close the channel’s operations in the country.
Associated Press supplies video feeds to thousands of clients including Al Jazeera.
Officials from the Israel’s communications ministry seized the equipment from the AP location in the southern Israeli border town of Sderot.
The piece of paper they handed to the new agency, bearing the signature of Shlomo Karhi, a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, accused it of violating the country’s foreign broadcaster law.
Following the backlash, Shlomo Karhi reportedly said that he had ordered officials to return the confiscated equipment ‘pending a decision by the Ministry of Defence’.
The confiscation of equipment caused a massive criticism including from Reporters Without Borders, which called the act “outrageous censorship”.
“The Associated Press decries in the strongest terms the actions of the Israeli government to shut down our longstanding live feed showing a view into Gaza and seize AP equipment,” s Lauren Easton, the vice-president of corporate communications at the news organization, was quoted as saying.
The White House responded to the incident saying that it was looking into it and called it ‘concerning’.
Questioning the equipment seizure, Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, posted on X: “The confiscation of the equipment of AP, the largest news agency in the world … is an act of madness. This is not Al Jazeera, this is an American media outlet that has won 53 Pulitzer Prizes.”
The equipment had been seized during live broadcasting of northern Gaza.
It is reported that Associated Press complies with Israel’s military censorship rules including not to broadcast troops movements as it could ‘endanger soldiers’.
Israel previously accused Al Jazeera of bias against the country and Israeli prime minister, Netanyahu, called it a “terror channel”, according to the report.