The Palestinian Authority has suspended operations of Al Jazeera television in the territory, accusing the station of inciting sedition and interfering in internal Palestinian affairs.”

The Palestinian news agency, WAFA, said on Wednesday. 

WAFA said Al Jazeera must immediately shutter its local offices and “freeze all the work of its journalists.” 

Last week, the Palestinian Authority criticised Al Jazeera over its coverage of the week-long standoff between Palestinian security forces and military fighters in the Jenin camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. 

But Al Jazeera denounced the decision, calling it “an attempt to prevent coverage of the escalating events witnessed in the occupied territories.”  It called on the Palestinian Authority to rescind the decision and allow its journalists to report freely from the West Bank without intimidation. 

Critics and human rights groups have charged the Palestinian Authority with launching an increasingly authoritarian crackdown on dissent, violently assaulting demonstrators and intimidating critics of Mahmoud Abbas, the authority’s president.

The decision was the latest blow to Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza in recent months. In September, the Israeli military raided Al Jazeera’s bureau in the West Bank city of Ramallah and ordered it shut.

In May, Israel issued an order barring Al Jazeera from operating and broadcasting in the country, saying it posed a threat to Israeli security. A court subsequently upheld the ban.