A 12-story building that houses the offices of the Associated Press and Al Jazeera television in Gaza has collapsed after being hit by Israeli missiles, Reuters reported, citing eyewitnesses.
The owner of the building was warned of the air strike and evacuated the people, so there were no casualties.
An Israeli army spokesman said there was Hamas military intelligence in the building, which houses apartments and other offices.
Meanwhile, Israeli police said a man had died after his apartment building was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip.
“An Israeli strike has devastated the tower where the AP’s Gaza offices are located,” US journalist John Gambrle wrote on Twitter. “The army warned the owner of the tower, where the AP’s premises are, that it would become a target,” he had written shortly before.
AFP reporters saw rockets destroy the 13-story tower.
Al Jazeera confirmed on Twitter that its premises were in this building, and retransmitted footage showing the tower collapsing into a cloud of dust.
The Israeli army did not respond to an AFP request for comment.
“Bombs could have fallen on our office. We were running down the stairs from the 11th floor and now we are looking at the building from afar, praying for the army to finally withdraw,” Fares Akram, an AP correspondent in Gaza, wrote shortly before the attack.
The Islamist movement Hamas, which rules in Gaza, and Israel have been exchanging deadly shelling from and to the Palestinian enclave since Monday. According to the latest data of the Palestinian Authority, last night the Israeli bombings took 139 victims, including 39 children, and 1000 people were injured.
More than 2,300 rockets have been fired at Israel by Palestinian militants since Monday, killing nine people, including a child and a soldier, and injuring more than 560.
According to the Israeli army, the Iron Dome missile shield has intercepted more than half of these missiles.
One person was killed after a rocket explosion in Ramat Gan, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said on Twitter. Rescue services said in a statement that the man was found seriously injured and doctors were unable to resuscitate him.
This is the tenth Israeli casualty in such shelling since May 10.
In the area of the so-called Greater Tel Aviv, the air-raid sirens sounded three times today with pauses of tens of seconds. Numerous explosions were heard from the sky above the city. The military service says alarm sirens are currently playing in some of the major cities in southern Israel.
EXPECT DETAILS IN BLITZ!
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