Facebook on Tuesday blocked the page of the Hamas-affiliated Gaza news agency Shehab, saying it violated the social media network's community standards against promoting violence despite being notified, i24NEWS reports.
The Facebook page was originally created in 2011 and has nearly 7.5 million followers.
"Despite recent outreach to its administrators regarding our policies, we have had to disable the Shehab News Agency Facebook page for repeatedly violating our community standards," a Facebook spokesperson said.
"We have previously explained to the Shehab News team that, in order to keep our community safe and prevent harm, we do not allow praise or support for groups, leaders or individuals who have engaged in violence," the spokesperson added.
Hamas denounced Facebook’s move.
"We condemn this decision and consider it an unjust decision and an attack on media freedoms and freedom of expression," Head of Hamas' Media Division Abroad Rafat Morra was quoted as having said.
"Shehab Agency is a professional agency committed to professional ethics and internationally recognized media standards, so it was able to possess such a wide presence in the media space," Morra added.
Facebook, as well as other social media websites, have in the past cracked down on Hamas-affiliated pages. In April of 2016, Hamas expressed anger after Facebook and Twitter shut down multiple accounts linked with the Al-Qassam Brigades.
In January of 2017, Facebook blocked dozens of accounts and pages supporting Hamas. The crackdown followed the launch of a social media campaign by the group promoting the actions of archterrorist Yahya Ayyash.
Ayyash, nicknamed The Engineer, was a Hamas terrorist who built the bombs used in a number of the group’s suicide attacks which killed dozens of Israelis in the 1990s. Israel eliminated Ayyash in January of 1996 using an explosive laden cellular phone.