Al-Jazeera and the Associated Press: Israel’s targeting of our offices violates international law, and we will take legal action

The Qatari “Al-Jazeera” media network described, on Saturday, Israel’s destruction of its office, which is located in a residential tower in Gaza City, as a barbaric act aimed at preventing it from revealing the truth, stressing that it will proceed with legal measures against the occupation.
“The destruction of our office is a precedent, which violates all norms of international law and human civilization,” Al-Jazeera said in a statement.

She pointed out that the Israeli army “did not give the residents of Burj al-Galaa only a very short time to evacuate the place before bombing it.”
The statement described what Israel had done as “a barbaric act targeting the safety of our journalists and preventing them from revealing the truth.”

In its statement, the network held the Israeli government “fully responsible,” indicating that it would “proceed with taking legal measures,” without providing any clarifications in particular.

For his part, President and CEO of the Associated Press Agency, Gary Pruitt, said in a statement, “We feel“ shock ”and“ awe ”due to the Israeli army bombing of the building in which the agency’s office is located in the Gaza Strip.

The statement emphasized that “the Israeli army has known for a long time that our office is in the tower, and that the journalists were there.”
He pointed out that “the agency received a warning from Israel before the building was bombed.”

Pruitt continued, “We are seeking information from the Israeli government, and we are working with the US State Department to try to learn more.”
He considered that “this is an incredibly disturbing development. We have hardly avoided the heavy loss of life. There were dozens of agency journalists and freelance workers inside the building, and fortunately we were able to evacuate them in time.”

Pruitt concluded his speech by saying, “The world will not know much about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today.”
Earlier Saturday, Israeli war fighters destroyed a residential tower that housed a number of international media offices in Gaza City, including the office of the Qatari Al-Jazeera channel and the American Associated Press.

Since Monday, Israel has launched an aggression with aircraft and artillery against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, resulting in 139 martyrs, including 40 children and 22 women, and 1038 injuries of varying degrees, according to the latest statistics of the Palestinian Ministry of Health.