The targeted symbol is very meaningful. A tower in Gaza City that housed international media offices was wiped out on Saturday, May 15, by a strike announced a few minutes earlier by the Israeli army, while rocket fire towards the Tel Aviv area resumed , killing an Israeli.
The thirteen-story building targeted by the Israeli air force, which had just been evacuated, in particular by the teams of the Qatari news channel Al-Jazeera and the American news agency Associated Press (AP), s’ is collapsed.
Israel just bombed Al-Jalaa Building in #Gaza which is mostly media offices, on live television with the Israeli of… https://t.co/zEtjJAmIul
“We have been running down the stairs since the 11e upstairs and now look at the building from afar, praying that the army will eventually retract ”, had tweeted shortly before the raid, Fares Akram, correspondent for AP in Gaza. Shortly after, he showed the huge cloud of smoke that continued to rise in the sky:
Smoke rising from what was the building housing our @AP office in #Gaza moments after Israeli jets destroyed it. I… https://t.co/bWtChKetjn
“The destruction of the offices of Al-Jazeera and those of other media in the Al-Jalaa tower in Gaza is a flagrant violation of human rights and is considered internationally a war crime”, denounced Mustapha Souag, the acting director general of the Qatari group, adding: “The aim of this heinous crime is to silence the media and hide the untold carnage and suffering of the people of Gaza. ”
Al-Jazeera news director Asef Hamidi said the channel will take “All measures to prosecute Israel”, adding that “The most important answer [était] to continue to cover events ”.
Israel wants “Silence the media that see, document and tell the truth about what is happening”, also lambasted the director of the office of Al-Jazeera in the Palestinian territories and in Israel, Walid Al-Omari, declaring that this “Crime” added to the “Series of crimes perpetrated by the Israeli army” in Gaza. Israel does not want “Only to spread destruction and death in Gaza, but also to silence the media who see, document and tell the truth about what is happening”, lambasted the Jerusalem-based journalist.
“I have worked here for eleven years. I have covered several events from this building. And there, in two seconds, everything evaporated “, also deplored the English correspondent of the Qatari channel in Gaza, Safwat Al-Kahlout, quoted on the Twitter account of Al-Jazeera.
The most important news channel in the Arab world, Al-Jazeera is regularly targeted by authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, where its correspondents cover wars and popular uprisings. The powerful media group financed by Qatar is accused by its detractors of sympathy towards Islamist movements to which Doha is close.
“Shocked and horrified”
“We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli army is targeting and destroying the building housing the PA and other media offices in Gaza.”, meanwhile reacted the boss of the AP news agency, Gary Pruitt, in a statement. “They have known the location of our office for a long time and knew there were journalists there. We were warned that the building would be hit ”, he added, specifying:
“This is an incredibly worrying development. We narrowly avoided terrible loss of life. About ten AP journalists and freelancers were in the building and, luckily, we were able to evacuate them in time ”
Also saying “Deeply shocked”, Agence France-Presse news director Phil Chetwynd expressed the agency’s “solidarity” with his colleagues.
Jawad Mehdi, owner of the Jala Tower, said an Israeli intelligence officer warned him before the strike that he had one hour to evacuate the building. He requested an additional ten minutes for reporters to pack their equipment, but was refused.
In a statement, Israeli forces confirmed the strike on the building, which they said housed “Entities belonging to the military intelligence of the terrorist organization Hamas” and accused the Islamist organization of “Deliberately installing military targets in overcrowded areas”, using, again according to the Israeli army, civilians like “Human shields”. The Israeli air force had already destroyed, Thursday, a tower of more than ten floors housing the offices of the Palestinian channel Al-Aqsa, created a few years ago by Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone with US President Joe Biden about the strike, Israel said in a statement, according to which Netanyahu claimed he had ” all [fait] to avoid attacking people not involved ”, and insisted that the evacuation of people from the building “Where were terrorist targets” had been organized before the raid.
Mr Biden said on Saturday his “Great concern” to Mr. Netanyahu, according to a statement from the White House. Reaffirming its support for “Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket attacks by Hamas”, the president expressed concern about “The safety of journalists”. The White House had already assured earlier that it had “Tells Israelis directly that ensuring the safety of journalists and independent media is a responsibility of paramount importance”, according to a tweet from spokesperson Jen Psaki.
Palestinian family decimated
Despite intensified diplomatic efforts to end six days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, nearly 300 rockets were again launched overnight from Friday to Saturday from Gaza into Israel. , according to the Israeli army, which continued its raids, some deadly, on several sites in the coastal enclave under blockade.
Ten Palestinians, including two women and eight children, members of the same family, were killed at dawn in one of these strikes on the Al-Shati refugee camp, located in the capital of the enclave, where two million Palestinians live under Israeli blockade.
Hamas responded to the raid in the morning by firing a volley of rockets into central Israel. A 50-year-old Israeli man, driving his car, was killed by one of the shootings on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israeli police and rescue services reported.
While the surge in violence shows no sign of abating after six days of conflict, the latest Palestinian authorities’ death toll shows 139 dead, including 39 children, and 1,000 injured in Israeli shelling on the Palestinian enclave.
The Israeli military operation, the largest since the 2014 war with the Islamist movement in Gaza, began Monday, in response to a barrage of Hamas rockets on Israel, fired in “Solidarity” with the Palestinian uprising on the Esplanade des Mosques in East Jerusalem.
Since then, more than 2,300 rockets have been launched into Israeli territory, killing ten people, including a child and a soldier, and injuring more than 560. According to the military, the Iron Dome missile shield in intercepted more than half.
