"This decision is a repressive and vengeful measure due to the professional role of this network in exposing the crimes of the occupying regime," Hamas said in a statement on Sunday.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline cabinet voted unanimously on Sunday to ban Al Jazeera’s activities in the occupied territories.
Netanyahu announced the decision on X, formerly Twitter.
Israeli officials have long accused the Qatar-based network of bias against the regime and collaborating with Palestinian resistance. Al-Jazeera has rejected the accusations, which have only intensified during the months-long war on Gaza.
In a statement on X, Al Jazeera denounced the "criminal move" by the Israeli regime to shut down its offices in the occupied territories, saying it "violates the human right to access information".
The controversial decision runs the risk of escalating tensions with Qatar, which funds the network, at a time when Doha is involved in mediation efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza.
Al Jazeera is one of the few international news organizations that was still operating in the besieged Gaza, broadcasting bloody scenes of deaths and destruction from the Palestinian enclave.
Hamas further called on international legal and media organizations to condemn the ban on Al Jazeera and to impose sanctions against the Zionist regime for targeting journalists.
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