Last night, the Israeli Cabinet for Political and Security Affairs (Cabinet) postponed the vote on closing Al Jazeera’s office and stopping its broadcast in Israel, to the weekly Israeli government meeting the day after tomorrow, Sunday, according to Israeli media reported today, Friday.

Israeli officials said that the postponement of the vote is related to communications about a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, and that Israel is currently awaiting Hamas’ response to a proposal for a deal, and hopes that Qatar will put pressure on Hamas.

The Israeli government's legal advisor, Gali Beharav Meara, approved the closure of the Al Jazeera network's office and broadcast in Israel, yesterday morning.

This comes against the backdrop of the Al Jazeera network’s extensive media coverage of the Israeli war on Gaza and the monitoring of the war crimes it commits in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli decision requires Al Jazeera to stop broadcasting in Arabic and English in Israel, close the channel’s offices, and block Al Jazeera’s websites, according to the Israeli public broadcaster “Kan.”

According to the position of the Israeli judicial advisor, it is possible to approve the closure of Al Jazeera in Israel without granting the channel the right to respond to the Israeli allegations against it, although there are legal difficulties in such a procedure, as Baharav Meyara herself wrote in a memorandum to the legal advisor to the Israeli communications ministries.

Director of the Cyber Department at the Public Prosecution Office, Haim Nismonsky, indicated that “it is not possible to issue an order to close the Al Jazeera network’s very widespread Facebook pages,” which means that Israel does not have the technological ability to prevent Al Jazeera from being viewed in Israel.