Israeli forces bombed a building that housed The Associated Press and Al Jazeera in Gaza City on Saturday, the news outlets reported, amid the latest round of air strikes in the area.
The AP reported that the entire 12-story building collapsed. Al Jazeera shared a 50-second clip on Twitter of the building crumbling after it had been hit.
The Israeli Defense Forces defended such strikes on Twitter, saying Hamas has “placed military assets” inside high-rise buildings for intelligence gathering, communication and other purposes.
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“The Israel Defense Forces struck a number of such buildings in recent days, but before we did so, we took steps to try and ensure that civilians would not be harmed,” the IDF wrote on Twitter.
“All the multi-story buildings targeted by the IDF were used for military purposes within each building,” the Israeli military added.
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The AP reported about an hour before the strike that Jawwad Mahdi, owner of the high-rise, said he received a call from the military warning that the building would be a target.
Madhi said he was told he had an hour to make sure everyone had left the building. After being told the warning, AP staffers and other residents of the building “fled in a panic,” the news outlet wrote.
The AP later reported that the army had told the news organization that its staff should evacuate.
The strike comes as violence between Israel and Hamas continued to escalate on Saturday, after Hamas launched rockets into Israel earlier this week.
According to CNN, more than 2,000 rockets have been fired toward Israel from Gaza since Monday.
- Discussion
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Building housing AP, Al Jazeera flattened in Israeli strike https://t.co/ecr07D2nTn pic.twitter.com/pOzEkDnshQ
— The Hill (@thehill) May 15, 2021⭕ LIVE footage of the moment an Israeli air raid bombed the offices of Al Jazeera and The Associated Press in Gaza City ⬇️
LIVE updates: https://t.co/RvtP1lEX1x pic.twitter.com/RBO1ZiDAl0
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 15, 2021
Hamas cynically uses foreign media as cover for terrorist activity. The IDF says to that foreign media "look, we have to target Hamas but don't want you harmed so please evacuate." They do. Nobody gets hurt. And Israel is still somehow the bad guy in this situation. Yeah, ok.
— Noam Blum 🦉 (@neontaster) May 15, 2021
I can't resist: If AP and Al Jazeera reporters didn't know Hamas was using their building…maybe time to find a new job?
— Nathan Wurtzel (@NathanWurtzel) May 15, 2021
This was a constant problem for us in Iraq—particularly the use of mosques for military purposes. Al Qaeda would use the mosques to plan ops, they’d sometimes place snipers in mosques. Sometimes they’d trigger ambushes from mosques. /2
— David French (@DavidAFrench) May 15, 2021
This is a constant problem fighting terrorists. They violate the law of war as a deliberate tactic, HOPING to trigger exactly the kinds of media reactions we see when the IDF brings down a “civilian” structure. They’re achieving the win/win that’s the goal of the tactic. /4
— David French (@DavidAFrench) May 15, 2021
to place the burden of combat on the combatants, and to remove it from civilians as much as possible. Thus the responsibility for violating the laws of war must rest with the violator only. Otherwise the system breaks down. /6
— David French (@DavidAFrench) May 15, 2021
There are reporters who know these distinctions and don’t care, but there are many who don’t know the law of war at all. It’s important that reporters who report from combat zones be trained in these concepts (and pundits learn them before they provide analysis). /end.
— David French (@DavidAFrench) May 15, 2021
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