Al Jazeera's Ramallah bureau chief said on Monday that the Qatari news channel could resume working in the Palestinian territories after president Mahmoud Abbas lifted a ban imposed on network's operations in the territory.

Al Jazeera's Ramallah bureau chief said on Monday the news channel could resume working in the Palestinian territories after president Mahmoud Abbas lifted a ban in place since January.

"Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbashas decided to lift the ban on the Al Jazeera network and allow its crews to resume work in the Palestinian territories starting tomorrow morning," Waleed Omari said in a statement to Israeli-Palestinian Foreign Press Association.

An official Palestinian source confirmed the removal of the ban to AFP.

The Ramallah-basedPalestinian Authority(PA)ordered the suspensionof the Qatar-based channel's broadcasts on January 1, accusing it of incitement.

The channel had aired footage of what appeared to be Palestinian security officers entering the network's office in Ramallah and handing over the suspension orders.

Al Jazeera accused the PA, which has partial administrative control in theWest Bank, of "attempting to deter Al Jazeera from covering escalating events in the occupied Palestinian territories" including in Jenin and its refugee camp.

At the time of the channel's suspension, PA security forces had been engaged in weeks of deadlyclasheswith militants in Jenin, in the northern West Bank.

Al Jazeera remains banned from broadcasting from Israel, since a long-running feud with Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu's governmentprompted his governmentto order the channel's closure in May 2024.

In September, armed and masked Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallahalso raided the Al Jazeera office, saying it was "used to incite terror".

(FRANCE 24 and AFP)

Originally published on France24