Qatari Al Jazeera TV said on Sunday morning that Israeli forces stormed its bureau in the West Bank’s Ramallah city with a military order to close it for 45 days.

The Qatar-based channel aired live footage of the Israeli troops storming the channel’s office and handing over a closure order to one of its staff before the broadcast was disrupted.

In a statement, the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate condemned the Israeli move, saying “this arbitrary military decision is considered a new violation against journalistic and media works, which has been exposing the occupation’s crimes against the Palestinian people.”

Recent months have seen a concerted effort by Israeli authorities to crack down on the network, regarded by many as propagating inflammatory anti-Israel and pro-Hamas rhetoric.

In May, Israeli authorities raided a Jerusalem hotel room used by Al Jazeera as its office after the government decided to shut down the Al Jazeera TV station’s local operations, saying it threatened national security.

Israel took the network off the air and blocked its broadcasts following an emergency law passed in April.

The initial Knesset law allowed Israel to ban the TV station for a 45-day period, with further 45-day renewals subject to court approval. The Tel Aviv-Jaffa District Court has renewed the ban four times since then, mostly recently last week.

In a June ruling, the court found that there was a direct and causal connection between individuals who have carried out terror attacks inside Israel and the consumption of Al Jazeera content.

It also determined that there was a “close connection” between Al Jazeera and Hamas, that some Al Jazeera reporters in Gaza had turned themselves into “assistants and partners” with the Palestinian terror group, and that some of them had even carried out terror attacks.