Israel lawmakers weigh Al Jazeera news broadcast ban

Israeli lawmakers weighed on Monday a bill that would give top ministers the authority to bar from Israel broadcasts of news channel Al Jazeera.

Israel had claimed in January that an Al Jazeera staff journalist and a freelancer killed in an air strike in Gaza were "terror operatives". The following month it said another journalist for the channel, wounded in a separate strike, was a "deputy company commander" with Hamas.

Israeli troops have been fighting against the Islamists in Gaza since October.

Al Jazeera has fiercely denied the accusations and accused Israel of systematically targeting Al Jazeera employees in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to take "immediate action" to shut down Al Jazeera in Israel once the law passes.

The bill permitting officials to stop foreign media deemed to harm national security already passed its first parliamentary hurdle last month.

Netanyahu's Likud party said he asked "to make sure that the law to close Al Jazeera will be approved this evening" in Israel's parliament, the Knesset.

Al Jazeera's bureau chief in the Palestinian territory, Wael al-Dahdouh, was also wounded, in an Israeli strike in December that killed the network's cameraman.

The war between Israel and Hamas began with the militant group's October 7 attack that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,845 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.