Hamas said Tuesday that Israel’s seizure of Associated Press equipment was a “repeated arbitrary and oppressive act against press freedom.”

The White House’s intervention was prompted earlier by Israel’s decision to cut off the agency’s live broadcast from Gaza.

“We are asking Israel to reverse the decision on The Associated Press,” White House spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre said.

The US, it is emphasized, is in direct contact with Israel to express its concerns about the action in the AP.

What the Associated Press reports about the cutoff from Israel

“The Associated Press denounces in the strongest terms the Israeli government’s action to shut down our live broadcast” that showed Gaza and “the seizure of our equipment,” the news agency said in a press release, attributing the decision to “abusive use by the Israeli government’ of the law passed in early April, which allows the banning of foreign media that undermines the security of the state from being broadcast in Israel.

The AP said authorities seized his camera and broadcast equipment.

At the same time, in its report on the events, the agency clarifies that the Qatari network is included among the thousands of customers of the videos sent live by the AP.

He also points out that Israeli Communications Ministry officials arrived this afternoon at the AP office in the southern Israeli city of Sderot and seized the material.

The news agency says officials handed the AP a paper, signed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, arguing that the AP violated the country’s new foreign broadcasting law.

“We call on the Israeli authorities to return our equipment and allow us to immediately restore our live broadcast so that we can continue to provide” these “important (images) to thousands of media outlets around the world,” the release noted. Press of the AP.

What is Tel Aviv’s response?

The Israeli Communications Ministry announced in a press release that “AP photographers frequently photograph the Gaza Strip from the balcony of a house in Sderot,” on the outskirts of the Palestinian territory, “in addition to focusing on the activities of the (Israeli) soldiers and in the place where they are”.

Israel’s military censorship prohibits the publication of images or information that could make it possible to identify Israeli soldiers or military installations.

“The Israeli government has decided that it will not allow the terrorist Hamas-supporting Al-Jazeera television network to broadcast from Israel,” the text continues.

“Despite warnings from communications ministry inspectors that they (the media) were breaking the law and that they should stop feeding Al-Jazeera their content… (the media) continued to do so,” adds the ministry, referring to the AP.