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An Israeli air strike shattered a 14-story high-rise building containing the offices of the AP News Agency in Gaza. The owner of the house had received a warning about an hour earlier. The Israeli military called him and asked to make sure that the building would be vacated within an hour, said Jawad Mahdi on Saturday. AP employees and residents then left the house in panic, where other media outlets such as the television station "Al Jazeera" also worked.
When AP contacted Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus, he said he was not directly aware of any such attack plans. But he will check that. There was initially no explanation for the attack. The Israeli army later announced on Twitter that fighter jets had attacked a high-rise building in which the Islamist Hamas military intelligence service had "military resources" at its disposal. "In the building are offices of civil media, behind which the terrorist organization Hamas is hiding and which it is misused as human shields." Hamas deliberately positions its military resources in the heart of densely populated residential areas in the Gaza Strip.
A spokesman for the Hamas military arm said after the building was destroyed, Tel Aviv should prepare for a "response that will shake the earth."
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Before the air strike, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets three times in quick succession at the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv on Saturday.
In Tel Aviv's neighboring city of Ramat Gan, according to paramedics, a 50-year-old man died when a rocket struck.
Howling warning sirens and explosions could be heard again and again.
The Tel Aviv area has seen a total of eight waves of attacks since Tuesday evening.
After the Israeli air strike, the US stressed the importance of protecting journalists. "We have told the Israelis directly that ensuring the safety and protection of journalists and independent media is a primary duty," said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Saturday.
US President Joe Biden telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the rocket attack on the building.
Netanyahu emphasized that his government was doing “everything” to avoid harm to those not involved in the conflict, said the Prime Minister's office.
On Saturday, Biden also spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the first time since taking office in January.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Presidential Office called the phone call "important" but did not provide any details.
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The Israeli army announced that the air force had fired at several rocket launchers and two combat units belonging to the Islamist Hamas, which ruled the Gaza Strip.
In addition, the house of a senior Hamas official had been attacked.
The house of Chalil al-Hajeh belonged to the “terrorist infrastructure” of the radical Islamic organization, it said in a statement published on Saturday.
At first it was not known whether Al-Hajeh was in the house.
Hit house in refugee camp
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa announced on Saturday that a house had been hit in the Shati refugee camp in western Gaza.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, ten members of a Palestinian family were killed, including eight children.
A five-month-old boy survived the attack.
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Civilians have also been killed in Beit Lahia in the north of the coastal strip and in other places, according to Wafa.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said the reports were being checked.
According to the Ministry of Health, 140 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the violence escalated on Monday.
The building containing the offices of the AP news agency and the Al Jazeera television station was hit by a missile
Source: REUTERS
According to police, a house in the Israeli city of Beersheva was hit by rocket fragments. There was property damage, but no injuries, it said. The Israeli coastal cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod were also attacked again. As Israel's army announced, eight people were killed in Israel by the rocket fire in the past few days.
The conflict between Israel and the ruling Hamas in the Gaza Strip escalated at the beginning of the week.
Militant Palestinians are constantly bombarding Israel with rockets - according to the Israeli army it was the last 2300. Israel reacts with massive attacks in the coastal area.
The background to the whole thing is, among other things, a political power game within the Palestinians.
The militant Hamas wants to weaken the more moderate Fatah, which recently postponed all-Palestinian elections.
Hamas relies on the only thing the group can really do: rockets and terror.
As the German press agency learned from Egyptian security circles, Israel rejected an offer from Egypt to arrange a ceasefire.
The US sent its Middle East envoy Hady Amr to Israel because of the escalating conflict. He will hold talks with Israeli government officials and Palestinian leaders and campaign for "sustainable calm", said the deputy spokeswoman for the US State Department, Jalina Porter.