Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday defended Israel’s attack on Gaza tower housing Al-Jazeera and The Associated Press offices, describing the attacks as
“perfectly legitimate’.
The Israeli prime minister told CBS Face the Nation that the building was used by a “Palestinian terrorist organisation”, and all attempts to minimise civilian injuries had been made.
“An intelligence office for the Palestinian terrorist organization (was) housed in that building that plots and organizes the terror attacks against Israeli civilians,” Netanyahu told CBS News.
“So it is a perfectly legitimate target. I can tell you that we took every precaution to make sure that there were no civilian injuries, in fact, no deaths.”
An Israeli airstrike on Saturday targeted and destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of The Associated Press, Al Jazeera and other media outlets.
AP’s president said the agency was “shocked and horrified” at the strike.
AP staffers and other tenants safely evacuated the building after the military telephoned a warning that the strike was imminent within an hour. Three heavy missiles struck the 12-story building, collapsing it in a giant cloud of dust.
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.
A statement from Al Jazeera condemned the attack, calling on “all media and human right institutions to join forces” in denouncing the bombing and to “hold the government of Israel accountable”.
On Sunday, several strong statements came from the Israeli camp. Israel army chief said that Hamas had ‘misjudged’ Israel’s strength.
“Hamas misjudged the strength of our response,” said Aviv Kochavi, the army’s chief of general staff, saying Gaza had since been enduring an aerial bombardment of unprecedented “intensity”.
Israel alleged that violence by Hamas was ‘premeditated’.
“It was completely premeditated by Hamas in order to gain political power,” said Israel’s ambassador to the world body, Gilad Erdan. He was speaking during a session called by United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on the crisis.
Hamas said its rocket fire into Israel was in response to Israeli forces’ entry into the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, amid high tensions over moves to evict Palestinian families in the city.
“Do you really believe that this property dispute is what caused Hamas to launch these large-scale attacks on the people of Israel?” Erdan said.
