Israeli airstrike in Gaza destroys building with international media houses

Israel’s army destroyed in an airstrike Saturday the 13-floor building housing Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television and American news agency The Associated Press in the Gaza Strip.

Israel “destroyed Jala Tower in the Gaza Strip, which contains the Al-Jazeera office and other international press offices,” Al-Jazeera said in a tweet, with an AP journalist saying the army had warned the tower’s owner ahead of the strike.

The building also contained a number of apartments and other offices.

Video footage broadcast by Al Jazeera showed the moment the 12-storey building collapsed after the strike as plumes of dark smoke rose in the sky.

⭕ 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

The strike came hours after another Israeli air raid on a densely populated refugee camp in Gaza City killed at least 10 Palestinians from an extended family, mostly children, in the deadliest single strike of the current violence.

In Gaza, at least 144 people have been killed since Monday, including 39 children and 22 women. In Israel eight people have been killed, including a 5-year-old boy and a soldier.

Early Saturday, an Israeli airstrike hit a three-story house in Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp, killing eight children and two women from an extended family.

Rockets and missiles in dizzying numbers have been exchanged since Monday between Gaza and Israel’s military across the enclave’s boundary.

The Israeli fighter jets also destroyed a 14-storey building that housed businesses as well as media offices in Gaza City after dropping two bombs.

The building was located in the old Roman neighbourhood, on the busiest shopping street in Gaza