Al Jazeera said Saturday it would not be silenced, after an Israeli air strike on Gaza demolished the building housing the Qatar-based broadcaster as well as US news agency The Associated Press.
‘It is clear that those who are waging this war do not only want to spread destruction and death in Gaza, but also to silence media that are witnessing, documenting and reporting the truth of what is happening in Gaza,’ said Walid al-Omari, Al Jazeera's Jerusalem bureau chief.
‘But this is impossible,’ he said on air shortly after the 13-storey Jala Tower in Gaza was obliterated.
‘This is a crime among a series of crimes perpetrated by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.’
Al Jazeera broadcast footage showing the building collapsing to the ground after the Israeli air strike, sending up a huge mushroom cloud of dust and debris.
Jawad Mehdi, the owner of the Jala Tower, said an Israeli intelligence officer warned him he had just one hour to ensure the evacuation of the building.
Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, Safwat al-Kahlout, tweeted his despair over the destruction.
‘I have been working here for 11 years. I have covered many events from this building... now everything, in two seconds, just vanished,’ he said.
Israel alleged its ‘fighter jets attacked a high-rise building which hosted military assets belonging to the military intelligence of the Hamas terror organisation’.
‘The building also hosted offices of civilian media outlets, which the Hamas terror group hides behind and uses as human shields,’ it said.
Meanwhile AFP reports from Washington, United States: The Associated Press said Saturday it was ‘shocked and horrified’ by an Israeli airstrike that destroyed a building housing the US news agency's Gaza bureau and those of other international news media.
‘This is an incredibly disturbing development. We narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life,’ AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt said in a statement about the attack on the building, which also housed Qatar-based Al Jazeera.
A dozen AP journalists and freelancers had been in the building but were able to evacuate, Pruitt said.
The White House, which has kept a relatively low profile on the Israeli-Palestinian flare-up, said Saturday it has cautioned Israel about the importance of protecting independent media.
‘We have communicated directly to the Israelis that ensuring the safety and security of journalists and independent media is a paramount responsibility,’ White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted.
Israeli defence officials said the building housed not only news bureaus but offices of Hamas militants.
AFP journalists watched the building collapse after the air strike, sending up a huge cloud of dust and debris.-AFP
