© Reuters/Ashraf Abu AmrahThe al-Jalaa building housing multiple media offices.
May 15, 2021
May 15, 2021
On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) targeted al-Jalaa Tower in Gaza City, a high-rise that housed AP, Al Jazeera and several other media outlets. Israel defended the airstrike, insisting that the tower was used by Hamas and was therefore a legitimate military target.
The claim has come under considerable scrutiny, however. AP said that it had "no indication" that Hamas militants operated out of the building. But this assertion has now been challenged by a former editor at the news outlet.
Matti Friedman, who worked at AP's Jerusalem bureau from 2006 to 2011, wrote in a series of tweets that while he didn't have "direct knowledge" of the incident, a source relayed that there was ample intelligence pointing to Hamas' presence in the building.
"I take army statements like I take foreign press reports - with several grains of salt," he wrote. "But a conversation with a friend who is intimately familiar with military decision-making right now suggests there were indeed Hamas offices there."
Comment: If these claims are true, it would have been prudent to raid the 'secret' office and arrest the personnel. Israel destroyed the whole building. An 'informer' who is 'intimately' within the circle of Israeli influence is no source of truth. This is an attempt by Israel to manage the both the narrative and fallout from its actions to validate destroying its true target 'by way of deception' - which was the media.