The Israeli parliament passed a bill Monday giving top ministers the authority to bar from Israel the broadcasts of news channel Al Jazeera -- a step Premier Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to take.
This law, which passed by 70 votes to 10, carries the authority to ban the broadcast of content from foreign channels but also allows the closing of their offices in Israel.
Netanyahu has vowed to take "immediate action" to shut down Al Jazeera in Israel once the law passes.
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 Hamas in Gaza since October.
Al Jazeera has fiercely denied the accusations and accused Israel of systematically targeting Al Jazeera employees in the Gaza Strip.
The bill permitting officials to stop foreign media deemed to harm national security had 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.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Featured Video Of The Day
180,000 Gazans Displaced In 4 Days As Israeli Aggression Continues Israel Army Preparing For "Decisive Offensive" Against Hezbollah "Where Should We Go": Gazans Forced To Shelter In Former Prison Amid War Children Of Indian-Americans Face Deportation As Time Runs Out Centre Fact-Checks Mamata Banerjee's Mic-Off Claim, She Hits Back At Olympics Opening Ceremony, Drag Parody Of 'The Last Supper' Draws Flak 'What Kind Of Democracy?' Court Raps Cops For Seeking Action On Professor 11-Year-Old Chinese Boy Writes 600 Lines Of Code To Build Rocket Study Abroad: Top Management Universities in Russia Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.