Israel Defends Destruction of Gaza News Media Building

IDF Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman pushes back against American lawmakers’ condemnation of the targeting of a building in Gaza that housed a number of international media outlets, where the military says Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization also maintained facilities, reports The Times of Israel.

One of the main occupants of the building, the Associate Press news agency, which has maintained offices there for some 15 years, has denied knowledge of Hamas’s presence in the building and demanded the Israel Defense Forces release evidence of that fact, which Zilberman rejected.

“Yesterday I released a statement with the assets that were in the building. I’ll repeat them: a Hamas research and development unit, Hamas military intelligence and offices of the PIJ. It was very clear what was in there,” he says.

Asked if the strike wasn’t a mistake nevertheless given the denunciation by key Israeli allies, including US President Joe Biden and Democratic US Senator Bob Menendez, who have until now overwhelmingly supported Israel’s operation in the Gaza Strip in response to ongoing rocket fire from Gaza at cities and towns throughout the country, Zilberman balked.

“We’re in the midst of an operation. They are firing wherever they want, on a civilian population, on cities that have tens and hundreds of thousands of people. Think for a second about all the people you mentioned, imagine what they would say if one rocket — one! — were fired at Washington. I want to know what they would say,” Zilberman says.

The spokesperson adds that this operation was meant to deter terror groups from maintaining offices alongside media outlets in the future.

Meanwhile, The Jerusalem Post reports Israel shared intelligence with the US showing how Hamas operated inside the same building with the Associated Press and Al-Jazeera in Gaza, officials in Jerusalem said on Sunday.

Officials in more than one government office confirmed that US President Joe Biden’s phone call to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday was, in part, about the bombing of the building, and that Israel showed Biden and American officials the intelligence behind the action.

“We showed them the smoking gun proving Hamas worked out of that building,” a source close to Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said. “I understand they found the explanation satisfactory.”

As expected, The Associated Press, Al Jazeera and other press advocates condemned the Israeli airstrike on Saturday that blew up the building housing them and other media outlets.

AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt said in a statement that the company was “shocked and horrified” by the military strike.

"They have long known the location of our bureau and knew journalists were there," Pruitt said. "We received a warning that the building would be hit."

AP Executive Editor Sally Buzbee said that her organization had not yet seen any evidence from Israeli officials to justify the bombing, which leveled the 12-story al-Jalaa tower block on Saturday.

Reporters for the AP and Al Jazeera were forced to evacuate the 12-story building after the owner was warned that it would be targeted. Israeli forces struck the building an hour later, causing it to completely collapse.