An Israeli airstrike on Saturday destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed the offices of The Associated Press news agency and other media outlets, as well as apartments for civilians.
The attack came hours after
another Israeli airstrike on a densely populated refugee camp in Gaza City that killed at least 10 Palestinians from a family, mostly children: it
has been the deadliest of the current conflict.
The agency stressed that the bombing is seen as another step by the army to silence reporters reporting from the area in the midst of its battle with the Islamist movement Hamas.
The attack came almost an hour after the Army ordered people to evacuate the building
, where the Al-Jazeera television network also had a space, as well as other offices and residential apartments.
The attack occurred about an hour after the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of the office and apartment tower.
There was no immediate explanation as to why they decided to attack the building.
Hatem Moussa / AP
"We are horrified and shocked that the Israeli Army targeted and destroyed the building that housed the AP and other media organizations in Gaza.
They have long known the location of our bureau and knew there were journalists there. We received a tip. that the tower would be bombed, "
reacted the president and CEO of The Associated Press, Gary Pruitt.
"We are requesting information from the Government of Israel and in contact with the State Department to try to have more details. This development is incredibly worrying. We were barely able to avoid terrible loss of life: a dozen journalists and freelancers from AP were inside the building. We are grateful that we were able to evacuate them in time.
The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza after what happened today
, "Pruitt added.
[As Hamas and Israel exchange rockets and bombardments, the UN warns of "a full-scale war"]
The bombardment toppled the 12-story building, which collapsed and formed a gigantic cloud of dust.
There was no immediate explanation for why she was attacked.
Remains of the building that housed the offices of the AP news agency and Al Jazeera television in Gaza on May 15, 2021.REUTERS / Mohammed Salem
Escalation of violence
The latest outbreak of violence began in Jerusalem and has spread throughout the region, with clashes between Jews and Arabs and riots in mixed cities in Israel.
There were also Palestinian protests on Friday in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces shot and killed 11 people.
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The spiral of violence has raised fears of a new Palestinian “intifada”
, [popular name for the rebellions of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip against Israel] as there have been no peace talks in years.
Palestinians attend the funeral of two women and eight children from the Abu Hatab family in Gaza on Saturday.
Khalil Hamra / AP
The Palestinians commemorate this Saturday the 73 years of the Nakba, a date in which they remember the 700,000 Palestinians who had to flee their territories to the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and other countries after the creation of Israel.
US diplomat Hady Amr arrived on Friday as part of Washington's attempts to de-escalate the conflict, and the UN Security Council was scheduled to meet on Sunday.
But Israel rejected an Egyptian proposal for a one-year truce that Hamas movement leaders had accepted, an Egyptian official revealed on Friday on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations.
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Since Monday night, Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets at Israel, which has responded with shelling in the Gaza Strip.
where at least 139 people have died, including 39 children and 22 women.
In Israel, eight people were killed, including a man who was killed in a rocket hit in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv.
The attack on the building that houses the media offices came in the afternoon, after the owner received a call from the Israeli army warning that the tower would be hit.
AP personnel and others in the building were immediately evacuated and reported safe.
An Israeli artillery unit fires at targets in the Gaza Strip, Saturday, May 15, 2021.AP Photo / Ariel Schalit
Al-Jazeera, the Qatari government-funded news network, broadcast the airstrikes live when the building collapsed.
“This channel will not be muted. Al-Jazeera will not be silenced, "
declared an on-air presenter of Al-Jazeera English." We can guarantee it right now, "he added.
The previous Saturday's shelling hit a three-story house in Gaza City's Shati refugee camp, killing eight children and two women in a family.
[Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip leave at least 40 dead]
Mohammed Hadidi told reporters that his wife and five children had come to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday with relatives.
She and three of the children, ages 6 to 14, were killed, while an 11-year-old boy is missing.
Only her 5-month-old son is known to have survived.
Among the rubble you could see children's toys and a Monopoly board game, as well as plates of uneaten food from the Christmas gathering.
"There was no warning," lamented Jamal Al-Naji, a neighbor who lives in the same building.
"Did you film people eating and then bomb them?" He said, addressing Israel.
"Why are you confronting us?
Go and face the strong people! "He added.
Hamas said it fired a salvo of rockets into southern Israel in response to the airstrike.
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The UN recalled that Gazans are already experiencing daily power outages for 8 to 12 hours and that at least 230,000 have limited access to tap water
.
The impoverished and densely populated territory is home to two million Palestinians, most of them descendants of refugees from what is now Israel.
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The conflict has had a strong impact.
Israeli cities with mixed Arab and Jewish populations have experienced nighttime violence, with mobs from each community fighting in the streets and vandalizing each other's property.
Tensions began in East Jerusalem earlier this month, with Palestinian protests against the evictions of Sheikh Jarrah and Israeli police measures at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a frequent hotspot located on a hill in the revered Old City. by Muslims and Jews.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised that Hamas will "pay a heavy price" for its rocket attacks, as Israel has massed troops on the border.
US President Joe Biden has voiced support for Israel and said he hopes to control the violence.
Hamas has fired some 2,000 rockets into Israel since Monday
, according to the Israeli military.
Most have been intercepted by missile defenses, but they have paralyzed life in southern Israeli cities, caused disruptions at airports and activated air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
With information from AP.
