Israeli authorities have ordered the blocking of Qatar-based Al Jazeera and Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen televisions across digital platforms, TV screens and YouTube.
The ban, signed by Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and announced on Sunday, prohibits broadcasting and internet companies, and YouTube from providing services to Al Jazeera and Al-Mayadeen inside Israel.
"From today, they (Al Jazeera) and Al-Mayadeen will be blocked in Israel—both on their websites, on television, and on YouTube! And at the discretion of the Minister of Defense, it will also be possible to disrupt them on satellite," Karhi said on US social media company X.
Karhi said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government approved the expanded ban, citing an amended law that he said enabled the move.
He added that Al Jazeera had already been "almost completely" blocked under the revised legislation.
According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, the decision will remain in force for 90 days.
The newspaper said the measures expand restrictions imposed more than two years ago under what is known as the "Al Jazeera law," which bans the broadcasting of the two channels inside Israel.
Haaretz said the Knesset last month approved an amendment allowing the communications minister to shut down foreign media outlets regardless of whether a state of emergency has been declared.
Under the law, if the prime minister determines, based on security assessments, that a foreign broadcaster harms state security, the communications minister may issue orders subject to Cabinet approval. The measures can include halting broadcasts, closing offices, confiscating equipment and blocking websites.
Israel banned Al-Mayadeen, which it describes as affiliated with Hezbollah, from operating in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories in November 2023.
In May 2024, at the height of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, Tel Aviv barred Al Jazeera from operating, a decision that has been repeatedly extended over the network's coverage of the deadly assault.
More than 71,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and over 171,000 others injured in the brutal Israeli war since October 2023, which has also left the enclave in ruins. The UN estimates the cost of Gaza reconstruction at about $70 billion.
Israel has occupied Palestinian territory and parts of Syria and Lebanon for decades and rejects withdrawal or the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital along pre-1967 lines.
