Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz has signed a military order designating five Palestinian local online media platforms as “terrorist” organisations, alleging links to Hamas, according to local Israeli media.

The order announced by Katz on Monday targets Al Asima News, Quds Plus, Alquds Albawsala, Maraj and Maydan Alquds. It said the outlets are used to incite unrest, particularly in Jerusalem.

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The decision comes as media monitors and rights groups continue to highlight Israel’s crackdown on freedom of speech, including in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said the order targets vital sources of information for Palestinians, serving as their “eyes and ears, especially in Jerusalem”.

“The occupied West Bank is divided by over a thousand gates and checkpoints, while entry into occupied East Jerusalem for most Palestinians is basically impossible – certainly not without an Israeli permit,” she said.

“These media outlets provide Palestinians with minute-to-minute updates of what is happening in Jerusalem, of Israeli violations, of the atmosphere.”

Odeh noted that the Israeli Ministry of Defence has not provided “any evidence” regarding the accusations against the five media outlets.

“We’ve seen Israel lodge these kinds of accusations against Palestinian journalists in the past without foundation, even accusations that were debunked. But still, journalists paid with their freedom or sometimes their lives because of them.”

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Nearly 300 journalists killed in Gaza

Since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023, the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continued to crack down on Palestinian journalists and outlets.

Israel has barred foreign journalists from independently entering Gaza since the war started, allowing only a limited number of reporters embedded with its military to work in Gaza on a case-by-case basis.

Since the war broke out, nearly 300 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel in Gaza, according to Shireen.ps, a monitoring website named after Al Jazeera’s veteran correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in 2022.

Last month, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karahi ordered a 90-day extension of an existing ban on Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, blocking broadcasting and internet companies from carrying the network’s content.

In May 2024, at the height of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the Israeli cabinet voted to shut Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, weeks after the Israeli parliament passed a law allowing the temporary closure of foreign broadcasters considered to be a “threat to national security”.