Israeli government officials confiscated equipment belonging to the Associated Press (AP) news agency and also cut off a live feed by journalists in southern Israel, citing a new law, the US agency said in a post on X.
"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," the post on the social media platform said.
"The shutdown was not based on the content of the feed but rather an abusive use by the Israeli government of the country’s new foreign broadcaster law," AP wrote, referring to Israel's law enabling the government to shut down and ban foreign broadcasters if they are classified as a risk to state security.
The new Foreign Broadcasters Law, passed earlier this month, was widely called the Al Jazeera law as Israel used it to ban the Qatari-based channel, accusing it of biased reporting in the Gaza war.
"We urge the Israeli authorities to return our equipment and enable us to reinstate our live feed immediately so we can continue to provide this important visual journalism to thousands of media outlets around the world," AP wrote.
Israeli Information Minister Shlomo Karhi wrote on X that his ministry's staff warned AP last week that no broadcast material was to be passed on to Al Jazeera.
His staff had confiscated a camera that had recorded the activities of the armed forces, saying AP had "illegally" passed on recordings to Al-Jazeera. Al Jazeera is one of AP's clients.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid described the Ministry of Information's action on X as "madness," saying AP is not Al Jazeera, but is an "American media company that has won 53 Pulitzer Prizes."
Lapid said the government was behaving "as if it wants to ensure that Israel is marginalized around the world at all costs."
Washington vowed to look into the matter, which White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre described as concerning. Media reporting is "essential to the pillars of our democracy," she said, adding that journalists must have the "ability and the right to do the job."