Israeli airstrike pulls down 13-storey building in Gaza, accommodating AP, Al Jazeera

May 15, 2021
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Smoke billows from an Israeli air strike on the Hanadi compound in Gaza City, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, on May 11, 2021. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)
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The Israeli airstrike on Saturday pounded the Palestinian claimed territory of Gaza, bringing down a 13-storey building accommodating two international media organisations, the Associated Press (AP) and Qatar-based Al Jazeera television, both in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli Air Force had earlier issue evacuation warning to all occupants of the building before the airstrike was carried out.

In the Israeli air strikes that pounded the Gaza Strip Saturday afternoon, 10 persons identified as members of an extended family, were killed. However, Palestinian militants fired back barrages of rockets into Israel territory where one person was said to be killed.

Al Jazeera head for Israel and the occupied territories, Walid al-Omari, had said that “Clearly there is a decision not only to sow destruction and killing, but also to silence those who broadcast it.”

The owner of the Jala Tower which was reduced to rubbles by the Israeli airstrike, Jawad Mehdi, had admitted that an Israeli intelligence officer warned him that he had just one hour to ensure the evacuation of the building.

Israel had carried out the airstrike on the suspicion that “military intelligence” of Hamas, the Gaza Strip’s Islamist rulers, were also operating from the building.

As the Israel, Palestine war over Gaza Strip escalates, Israel had earlier carried out an airstrike on a three-storey building in the Shati refugee camp, where 10 members of an extended family, which included two related mothers and their four children each, were killed. The Israel military had claimed that “Hamas terror organisation senior officials” were using the building.

A six-month-old baby had survived the explosion but with wound on the hands.

The father of the baby had cried out: “What did they do to deserve this? We are civilians.

“They are striking our children — children — without previous warning”.

The war had entered the sixth day as the conflict continues to escalate, the death toll rising in every passing day, while violence had become predominant in occupied West Bank.

Israeli fighter jets have continued hits many sites and security targets in the densely populated Gaza Strip, where there have been blockades over a decade. Palestinian Islamists, on the other side, are firing rockets into the territory of Israel.

Health workers had disclosed that between Monday and Saturday, Israeli air and artillery strikes on Gaza killed 139 people, 39 children inclusive, injured 1,000 others,.

Palestinian military had also fired 2,300 rockets into Israel territory, killing 10 persons, including one child and one soldier, while over 560 people have been injured.

Police authorities and medical officials had revealed that the Palestinian military fired rockets on Saturday afternoon from Gaza Strip which killed one Israeli in the central town of Ramat Gen near Tel Aviv.

It was gathered that 11 Palestinians were killed when Israel struck in the West Bank on Friday. There were fears that the violence in the West Bank may escalate Saturday as Palestinians mark the Nakba, the “catastrophe” of Israel’s creation in 1948.

The US Secretary for Israel-Palestinian Affairs, Hady Amr, has been mandated to hold talks Sunday with Israeli leaders, prior to a meeting with Palestinian officials.

Amr is seeking a “sustainable calm”, State Department deputy spokeswoman, Jalina Porter, had  said.

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