Israel holds off on threatened shut-down of Al Jazeera locally

Israel signalled on Monday it would hold off on a threatened closure of the local bureau of Al Jazeera, leaving the powerful Qatar-owned satellite station unmentioned in a government decision about emergency media regulations for the Gaza war.

The omission pointed to a balancing act by Israel, which has been angered by Qatari ties to its arch-foe Iran and Hamas, but is looking to Doha to persuade the Palestinian militant group to free scores of hostages held in the Gaza Strip.

A statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet said it had authorised action against Lebanese pro-Iranian channel Al Mayadeen for “making wartime efforts to harm (Israel’s) security interests and to serve the enemy’s goals”.