The Israeli Cabinet approved a proposal on Sunday to shutter the operations of the Hezbollah-aligned Al Mayadeen TV news channel in the Jewish state, confiscate the network’s broadcasting equipment and block its website.
On Nov. 13, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi closed Al Mayadeen for 45 days after getting authorization from the country’s Security Cabinet, as well as from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. However, the ban was not renewed following its expiry in January.
The decision to reinstate the ban on the Lebanese network was taken in the wake of “the re-appearance of terrorist representatives posing as journalists about two weeks ago,” Karhi’s office announced on Sunday.
Like Qatar’s Al Jazeera, which Israel banned in April, Al Mayadeen has repeatedly been accused of serving as a propaganda channel for Hamas.
Last month, Al Mayadeen reporter Hanaa Mahamid broadcast live from the site where a rocket barrage fired by Hezbollah killed 12 children.
“Allowing a Hezbollah reporter to broadcast from the scene of the massacre that Hezbollah carried out is absurd by any standard,” Karhi said at the time, noting that Jerusalem was still waiting for security officials to issue an opinion on the ban’s renewal, as required by law.
In her July 28 report from the Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams, Mahamid referred to the area as “the occupied Syrian Golan.” She also claimed that those killed by Hezbollah died due to an “Israeli attack.”
Twelve children were killed and more than 40 people were wounded on July 27 in the single deadliest Hezbollah attack since the Iran-backed terrorist group joined the war in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, firing drones, missiles and rockets across the border on a near-daily basis.
In response to the deadly assault, Israeli jets carried out the targeted killing in Beirut of Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s No. 2 commander, who was said to have ordered the rocket attack on the Golan. The terrorist group has vowed to avenge Shukr’s death “whatever the consequences.”
