Israel destroys Gaza media building as rockets rain on Tel Aviv

Israeli air strikes destroyed a Gaza high-rise housing international media offices on Saturday, in an attack The Associated Press described as the latest step by the military to silence reporting from the territory.

The strike on Jala Tower came as the militant group Hamas intensified rocket fire from the besieged enclave towards Tel Aviv after a night in which Israeli air strikes killed at least 10 members of one family in a Gaza refugee camp, the deadliest strike since hostilities erupted earlier this week.

Al-Jazeera, whose Gaza offices were in the the 12-storey building, broadcast the strike live on air as an explosion brought the tower down in a huge cloud of dust.

"This channel will not be silenced. Al-Jazeera will not be silenced," a presenter for the Qatari-owned channel said, her voice thick with emotion. "We can guarantee you that right now."

Al-Jazeera broadcast video showing the building’s owner, Jawwad Mahdi, pleading over the phone with an Israeli intelligence officer for more time after receiving warning that the tower would be bombed.

"All I'm asking is to let four people... to go inside and get their cameras," he said. "We respect your wishes. We will not do it if you don't allow it, but give us 10 minutes."

After the officer on the other end of the phone rejected his request Mr Mahdi said: "You have destroyed our life's work, memories, life. I will hang up. Do what you want. There is a God."

The Israeli military said the building contained "Hamas military intelligence" offices and that it gave people inside the building "ample time to evacuate".

"The building contained civilian media offices, which the Hamas terror organisation hides behind and uses as human shields," the military said in a statement.

The president of The Associated Press, Gary Pruitt, called the attack "an incredibly disturbing development".

"The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today," Mr Pruitt said in a statement. "We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP's bureau and other news organisations in Gaza."

"We narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life," he said. "A dozen AP journalists and freelancers were inside the building and thankfully we were able to evacuate them in time."

https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/1393548304852606977

Earlier an Israeli man was killed after a rocket hit his building in Ramat Gan, a city on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israeli police and medics said. Israel has now reported nine dead, including children.

"We will not let this terror go unanswered," the Israeli military said of the rocket fire from Gaza.

Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, said the intense volleys of missiles were in retaliation for the “massacre against women and children” at Al-Shati camp in western Gaza, where a two-month-old baby was reportedly the only survivor pulled from the rubble of a building in which 10 members of one family died, including eight children and two women.

Israel said it had struck an apartment in the area that was used by Hamas. It said that the strike was under review.

Israeli planes renewed air strikes in Gaza early on Saturday and Hamas militants responded by firing rockets into Israel as their battle entered a fifth night and US and Arab diplomats sought an end to the violence.

Palestinian medics said at least 15 people were killed overnight in air strikes throughout Gaza.

The Israeli military said it carried out strikes on a Hamas military intelligence facility and a number of rocket launching sites in northern Gaza.

The Palestinian religious affairs ministry said Israeli planes destroyed a mosque. A military spokesman said the army was checking the report.

With no sign of an end to the fighting, casualties spread further afield, with Palestinians reporting 11 killed in the occupied West Bank amid clashes between protesters and Israeli security forces.

At least 132 people have been killed in Gaza since Monday, including 32 children and 21 women, and 950 others wounded, Palestinian medical officials said.

Among nine dead in Israel were a soldier patrolling the Gaza border and six civilians, including two children, Israeli authorities said.

Ahead of a session of the UN Security Council on Sunday to discuss the situation, Biden administration envoy Hady Amr, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israel and Palestinian Affairs, flew in on Friday.

The US Embassy in Israel said the aim was "to reinforce the need to work toward a sustainable calm".

Israel launched day-long attacks on Friday to destroy what it said were several miles of tunnels, launch sites and weapons manufacturing warehouses used by the militants in an effort to halt the rocket attacks.

Across central and southern Israel, from small towns bordering Gaza to metropolitan Tel Aviv and southern Beersheba, people have adjusted to sirens wailing, radio and TV broadcast interruptions and the beeps of cell phones bearing red alerts that send them rushing for cover.

Cross-border hostilities between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have been accompanied by violence in mixed communities of Jews and Arabs in Israel. Synagogues have been attacked and street fights have broken out, prompting Israel's president to warn of civil war.

Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza, launched the rocket attacks on Monday, in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestinians near al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site, in East Jerusalem.

The Israeli military said more than 2,000 rockets had been fired from Gaza into Israel since the start of the conflict, around half of them intercepted by missile defence systems and 350 fell into the Gaza Strip.

Civil unrest between Jews and Arabs in Israel itself dealt a strong blow to efforts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's opponents to unseat the Israeli leader after a series of inconclusive elections, giving rise to expectations Israelis will go to the polls for an unprecedented fifth time in just over two years.