GAZA CITY: Amid an escalation of violence by Israeli forces, an Israeli airstrike has destroyed a high-rise building housing several international media offices including those of Associated Press and Al Jazeera.
The airstrike Saturday came roughly an hour after the Israeli military ordered people to evacuate the building. There was no immediate explanation for why the building was targeted. The building also contained a number of apartments and other offices.
???? Al Jalaa Building in Gaza City destroyed ????
Watch the moment the building that houses Al Jazeera and several other international media agencies is flattened after Israeli warplanes target it with multiple missiles.
Again, this is Israel’s “right to defend itself”. pic.twitter.com/gqdsi9NqQg
— لينة (@LinahAlsaafin) May 15, 2021
AJ producer Lina AlSaafin tweeted about the warning, saying that their office was given an hour and that colleagues “have already evacuated”. The time stamp on the tweet indicates it was posted at 4:13pm (Pakistan Standard Time).
???? Israel has given a “warning” that it will bomb the building that houses Al Jazeera offices and other international media channels in Gaza City in one hour…our colleagues have already evacuated
— لينة (@LinahAlsaafin) May 15, 2021
Video footage broadcast by Al Jazeera showed the moment the 12-storey building collapsed after the strike. “The tower has come down,” the reporter said in the video.
“Whenever you see journalists doing live updates from Gaza, they’re usually standing on the roof of that building which has now been flattened by an air strike by the Israeli military,” she added.
Earlier, the Israeli air raid on a densely populated refugee camp in Gaza City killed at least 10 Palestinians from an extended family, mostly children, early Saturday in the deadliest single strike of the current battle with Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
The latest outburst of violence began in Jerusalem and has spread across the region, with Jewish-Arab clashes and rioting in mixed cities of Israel. There were also widespread Palestinian protests Friday in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces shot and killed 11 people.
