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An Israeli airstrike on Saturday targeted and destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets. Hours later, Israel bombed the home of a top leader of Gaza's ruling militant Hamas group.

For 15 years, the AP's top-floor office and roof terrace were a prime location for covering Israel's conflicts with Gaza's Hamas rulers, including wars in 2009 and 2014. The news agency's camera offered 24-hour live shots as militants' rockets arched toward Israel and Israeli airstrikes hammered the city and its surrounding area this week.

The building that was targeted also housed the offices of Qatari-run Al-Jazeera TV, as well as residential apartments. The Israeli military said Hamas was operating inside it, a standard explanation, and it accused the militant group of using journalists as human shields. But it provided no evidence to back up the claims.

In response to the strike against the building that housed media outlets, The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists demanded Israel "provide a detailed and documented justification."

"This latest attack on a building long known by Israel to house international media raises the specter that the Israel Defense Forces is deliberately targeting media facilities in order to disrupt coverage of the human suffering in Gaza," the group's executive director, Joel Simon, said in a statement.

U.S. diplomat Hady Amr arrived Friday as part of Washington's efforts to de-escalate the conflict, and the U.N. Security Council was set to meet Sunday. But Israel turned down an Egyptian proposal for a one-year truce that Hamas rulers had accepted, an Egyptian official said Friday on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations.

As the hostilities continued, an Israeli bombardment struck a three-story house in Gaza City's Shati refugee camp on Saturday morning, killing eight children aged 14 and under and two women from an extended family.

"There was no warning," Jamal Al-Naji, a neighbor living in the same building, said. "You filmed people eating and then you bombed them?" he said, addressing Israel. "Why are you confronting us? Go and confront the strong people!"

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Hamas said it fired a salvo of rockets at southern Israel in response to the airstrike.

An Israeli official defends the strike:

U.S. President Joe Biden has urged a deescalation in the five-day conflict between Hamas and Israel, but has publicly backed Israel's right to self-defense from Hamas rockets fired from Gaza. On Saturday, he spoke with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted Saturday that the U.S. had "communicated directly to the Israelis that ensuring the safety and security of journalists and independent media is a paramount responsibility."

Major military operation on Friday

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said the military aims to minimize collateral damage in striking military targets. But measures it takes in other strikes, such as warning shots to get civilians to leave, were not "feasible this time."

Israeli media said the military believed dozens of militants were killed inside the tunnels. The Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups have confirmed 20 deaths in their ranks, but the military said the real number is far higher.

Gaza's infrastructure, already in widespread disrepair because of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamas seized power in 2007, showed signs of breaking down further, compounding residents' misery. The territory's sole power plant is at risk of running out of fuel in the coming days.

The U.N. said Gazans already are experiencing daily power cuts of 8-12 hours and at least 230,000 have limited access to tap water. The impoverished and densely populated territory is home to 2 million Palestinians, most of them the descendants of refugees from what is now Israel.

"The medical staff of the Red Crescent has provided with medical assistance 1,334 Palestinians injured as a result of attacks by the Israeli army in the occupied Palestinian territories, which have been underway for the eighth day in a row," the Red Crescent said in a statement.

In the West Bank, 892 Palestinians have been injured by tear gas used by the Israeli law enforcement officers, 233 by rubber bullets, 171 by live round, 38 others sustained burns and impact injuries.

In the Gaza Strip, 101 people have been injured as a result of Israeli airstrikes.

The Gaza-based Palestinian militant group began firing rockets into Israel on Monday, just minutes after the passing of a deadline for its demand that Israeli forces be removed from around the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex. The Israeli military responded with a wave of missile strikes aimed at Gaza, and has threatened an outright invasion.

The Hamas strategy against Israel revolves around the principle of retaliation for every Israeli attack on the besieged Gaza Strip, a senior representative for the group has said.

The spokesman added that that equation had already "proven that Tel Aviv would be fired upon in case Gaza was bombed, and that the destruction of homes [in Gaza] would be responded to in kind." He also suggested that Israel had suffered a blow "unprecedented" in its severity on Monday with the launch of 150 Hamas rockets in a three minute window.

Barhoum stressed that Hamas would not be intimidated by Israel's threats to launch a ground invasion, and to turn the conflict into a long war. "We are ready to continue the battle no matter how long it will take," he warned. He added that the Israeli government would not be able to achieve any of its goals, and would be forced to turn to other countries to help broker a ceasefire with Hamas, just as it did in 2012 and 2014.

"We have had contacts with Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations; but we told them clearly that we reserve the right to safeguard our homeland, and that any mediator must force the Zionists to stop their aggression against Jerusalem as well as other parts of our lands.

Barhoum suggested that unpleasant "surprises" would await Israel if the war continues, and pointed to Hamas attacks in depth, "and against the centres and sensitive points of this regime." He warned that "if the enemy launches a ground attack on the Gaza Strip, it will be a real opportunity for the resistance to kill the enemy army. The occupiers must know that the equation has changed today, and that those who attack any Palestinian child from Rafah to Jerusalem will be held accountable by the resistance."

After launching its retaliatory strikes on Gaza, Israel Defence Forces spokesman Jonathan Conricus said that the military did not anticipate the Hamas attacks, and "thought we had communicated clearly what the consequences would be."

In other words, the arrogant IDF got caught with their pants down. Will the potential ground invasion Israel keeps threatening turn into the rout that was Lebanon?

The ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, the worst in years, was triggered by court rulings to evict Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem and banning Palestinians from visiting holy sites during Ramadan.

American lawyer Alan Dershowitz has lashed out at Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, calling him "a self-hating Jew" and "the great villain" after the latter wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times commenting on the current Israel-Gaza conflict. Dershowitz was speaking as a guest on the Chris Salcedo Show on Newsmax TV on Friday.

He said Sanders "is willing to see Israel be defeated militarily by a terrorist group because he's on the hard left."

Sanders' opinion piece was published in the New York Times on Friday - the senator wrote that "the United States should be urging an immediate cease-fire," and that the new administration "must recognise that Israel has the absolute right to live in peace and security, but so do the Palestinians."

"The great villain of this piece is Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders is basically encouraging Hamas to continue what it's doing. And the squad, and the New York Times," Dershowitz said.

Speaking about Israeli actress Gal Gadot receiving negative responses to her post on social media calling for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the lawyer complained about "what the internet allows us."

"...you get the social media, supporting Hamas, The New York Times supporting Hamas, and it sends a very powerful message: do it again, kill children...kill civilians...commit war crimes, you'll prevail on this because of the anti-Semitism...you can be a Jew and an anti-Semite."

Dershowitz then targeted Democratic members of Сongress such as Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for "cheering for Hamas," claiming the organisation is "sending rockets aimed at Israeli civilians."

© Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Smoke rises from Israeli destroyed building hosting Al-Jazeera and Associated Press offices.

The Associated Press and Al Jazeera have both issued statements condemning the bombing of Gaza media offices by the Israeli military, claiming that the "disturbing" attack almost killed several reporters.

Following the targeted bombing on Saturday, which destroyed the building containing international media offices in Gaza, AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt said the company was

"shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building," as they have "long known the location of our bureau and knew journalists were there.

"We are seeking information from the Israeli government and are engaged with the US State Department to try to learn more," he revealed, calling the bombing "an incredibly disturbing development - narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life.

"A dozen AP journalists and freelancers were inside the building and thankfully we were able to evacuate them in time. The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today."

Al Jazeera Jerusalem bureau chief Walid al-Omari added that it would be "impossible" to stop the truth.
In their own statement, Al Jazeera accused the Israeli government of trying to

"silence media that are witnessing, documenting and reporting the truth of what is happening in Gaza. This is a crime among a series of crimes perpetrated by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip."

The Israel Defense Forces justified the attack by alleging that Hamas was also using the building for "intelligence gathering" and other purposes, and that it had thus become a "lawful military target."

Following the bombing of the tower, an Al Jazeera English anchorwoman declared on air:

"This channel will not be silenced. Al Jazeera will not be silenced."

People from around the world - including many journalists - condemned the bombing, calling it terrorism, a war crime, and an attack against the free press. Meanwhile, several high-profile conservative commentators in the United States mocked the bombing and expressed their support for the carnage. Television commentator John Cardillo, who was recently a host at Newsmax TV, and conservative journalist David Reaboi also celebrated the bombing:

Harry Khachatrian, a contributing editor for Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire, claimed the video "just warms your heart to see" and is "a great start to the weekend." He also accused Al Jazeera of creating "PR for Hamas terrorists," and concluded all that was missing was "some music" like "Dancing in the Street." "The AP will find a new building to work out of."

Kurt Schlichter, a senior columnist for the conservative Townhall website, published several tweets laughing at the attack and calling the bombers "heroes," while Stephen L. Miller - who has previously written for Fox News and National Review - posted a picture of a woman grinning.

Former US Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell made several posts defending the bombing by accusing AP of paying rent to a "Hamas front company."

Conservative podcast host Jesse Kelly framed the bombing of media offices as a fight against "communism," tweeting, "Israel has done more to fight communism in the last 24 hours than America has done in years."

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