Israel strikes Gaza’s media building

Two Israeli air raids targeted a number of media outlets in Gaza Sunday morning, according to the channel’s correspondent.

Early Sunday, an Israeli air strike hit a Gaza City media building, injuring at least six journalists, as a separate raid in northern Gaza killed two people, Palestinian medical sources said.

“At least six journalists were wounded, with minor and moderate injuries, when Israeli warplanes hit the al-Quds TV office in the Showa and Housari building in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City,” health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP.
Witnesses reported extensive damage to the building, and said journalists had evacuated after an initial strike, which was followed by at least two more on the site.

The injured were taken to Gaza City’s Shifa hospital. One journalist lost his leg in the attack, Qudra said.

Imad Efranji, director of the al-Quds TV office, slammed the incident as “a new crime against the media.”

“It was the media battle that forced Israel to stop its killing of children and civilians last time,” he told AFP, referring to Israel’s December 2008-January 2009 Operation Cast Lead.

In the northern strip, Israeli war planes carried out two separate raids on houses that killed two and injured 10 others, Qudra said.

“Two young citizens were killed and at least ten others wounded in two separate raids on houses in Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanun,” he said.

In Gaza City, as the Israeli air force attacked from above, Israeli naval forces opened fire, launching more than a dozen shells towards the shore, an AFP correspondent reported.

It was unclear what the shells had hit, with the Israeli military’s official spokesperson Twitter account saying only: “(A) short while ago, Israeli Navy targeted several Hamas terror sites in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel launched a massive air campaign on Gaza since last Wednesday with the declared goal of deterring Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that runs the Strip, from launching rockets that have plagued its southern communities for years.

On the ground, al-Qassam military wing spokesman said on Saturday that Hamas had launched more than 900 rockets on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in addition to downing an Israeli navel and a drone, reported Al Arabiya.

Possible ceasefire
Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said on Saturday there were “indications” that Hamas and Israel could reach “a ceasefire soon.”

“There are some indications that there could be a ceasefire soon,” Mursi said at a joint news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, adding that there were still “no guarantees.”

Arab ministers had given their backing on Saturday to Egyptian efforts to secure a truce that would end Israel’s offensive on Gaza, they said in a statement after an Arab League meeting in Cairo.

Arab foreign ministers also agreed to form a delegation to travel to the Palestinian enclave in a show of support. League chief Nabil Elaraby told reporters he would lead the team and that the trip was expected to take place in “one or two days”.

Ministers meeting at the Cairo-based headquarters had said Arab states had to take practical steps to support Palestinians in Gaza.

Source: Al Arabiya.net