Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV announces it has begun broadcasting via a European communications satellite. Less than 24 hours later, its broadcasts were removed from the air shortly after the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center’s bulletin and as a result of the intervention:

    1. On January 5, 2009 , the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center revealed that Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV had begun broadcasting via a European communications satellite called Eurobird , which belongs to Eutelsat , a company whose head offices are in Paris .

    2. Following the publication of the ITIC information and after appeals by many factors, the French authorities instructed Eutelsat to remove Al-Aqsa TV's broadcasts from its European satellite. On the morning of January 11, and ITIC examination showed that the broadcasts had in fact been removed from Eurobird .

    3. According to official sources in the French satellite industry, Al-Aqsa TV was taken off the air less than 24 hours after it started broadcasting. According to the same sources, the French broadcasting regulator CSA ( Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel ) wrote to Eutelsat and warned them that much of Hamas's programming contravened French laws against incitement to hatred and violence (Agence France Presse, January 9, 2009 ).