A top editor at the Associated Press has called for an investigation into an Israel airstrike on a building housing some journalists in Gaza City.
The Tel Aviv regime alleged that Hamas resistance movements was operating in the the al-Jalaa Tower, an allegation addressed by Sally Buzbee, the AP's executive editor.
“We are in a conflict situation,” Buzbee said. “We do not take sides in that conflict. We heard Israelis say they have evidence; we don’t know what that evidence is.”
Here's my interview with the AP's @SallyBuzbee about the Gaza bureau bombing. "We're looking for some temporary quarters" in Gaza, she said, and trying to ensure "that this does not disrupt the important mission of telling the world what is happening in this conflict right now." pic.twitter.com/2ID4eb6hwj
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 16, 2021
She noted that the organization's Gaza bureau had been there for 15 years and had not previously been warned of this in the building.
“We think it’s appropriate at this point for there to be an independent look at what happened yesterday — an independent investigation.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted on Saturday following the airstrike on the building that the safety of journalists is "paramount," but did not denounce the outrageous Israeli action.
.@jdickerson: "It's inconceivable you would have talked to [Pres. Biden] & not shared proof of Hamas in those buildings that housed the journalists. Did you share that with him?"
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) May 16, 2021
PM Netanyahu: "Well, we pass it through the intelligence services to our people, to those people." pic.twitter.com/bVrxAmg8kv
The entire 12-story building collapsed, according to AP. Al Jazeera shared a short clip on Twitter of the building crumbling after it had been targeted.
The US-based Associated Press and the Qatar-based Al Jazeera -- whose offices were blown out in the airstrike – as well as press freedom groups — strongly condemned the Israeli regime’s bombing of the high-rise building.