"Let's see what happens," Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

The news agency said on Monday that Israeli authorities had seized a camera and transmission equipment from its staff in southern Israel, accusing the AP of violating a ban it has imposed on the Qatari-based Al Jazeera television network.

The AP is among thousands of customers that receive live video feeds from the agency via satellite from Qatar.

The Israeli government ordered the closure of Al Jazeera's offices in Israel on May 5, and banned the broadcast and distribution of the Qatari channel's website in the country, after passing a law allowing it to outlaw foreign media outlets deemed to be harming state security.

The AP "strongly condemns the Israeli government's actions to shut down our long-standing live camera feed from Gaza and confiscate AP equipment," said Lauren Easton, the agency's vice president for corporate communications.

Israel's Communications Ministry said in a statement that "AP photographers regularly film the Gaza Strip from the balcony of a house in Sderot," just across the boundary from the Palestinian territory, "including focusing on [Israeli] soldiers' activities and their whereabouts."

Israeli military censorship prohibits the publication of images or information that could help locate Israeli soldiers or military installations.

The agency said it abides by Israel's military censorship rules, which bar the broadcast of details such as troop movements that could endanger soldiers.

The live footage has generally shown smoke rising from the territory, the AP said.

"The Israeli government has decided that it will not allow the Hamas-supporting Al-Jazeera channel to broadcast from Israel," the Communications Ministry said.

"Despite warnings by the Communications Ministry inspectors that they were violating the law and must stop providing content to Al-Jazeera... they continued to do so," the ministry said of the AP.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called the move "an act of madness."

"This isn't Al-Jazeera. This is an American news agency," he said.

"This government is acting as if it has decided that at all costs it will make sure that Israel is shunned all over the world," Lapid said.

Al Jazeera was one of the few international news outlets to remain in Gaza during the war, broadcasting footage of airstrikes and overwhelmed hospitals, and accusing Israel of war crimes.

The Gaza war began with a Hamas rocket attack on Israel on July 8, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and left more than 200 in custody, according to Israeli authorities.

More than 35,600 Palestinians have been killed since then in the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its casualty figures.

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