The Al Jazeera team was reporting live when the Palestine Tower directly behind them was hit by an Israeli air strike.
Israeli air strikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip destroyed a tower in the heart of Gaza City, where widespread fighting between Palestinian fighters and the Israeli army claimed hundreds of lives.
The attack on the Palestine Tower on Saturday came hours after Hamas, the group that runs the besieged Gaza Strip, launched a multi-pronged attack, firing thousands of rockets and sending fighters into Israel.
The strike was captured live on camera while Al Jazeera correspondent Youmna Al-Sayed was reporting from another nearby building.
Watch the moment Israeli fighter planes bombed the Palestine Tower behind Youmna Al-Sayed on Al Jazeera as she reported live from Gaza ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/dXHVRJiCOC
– Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 7, 2023
“The building was completely destroyed and leveled,” she said afterward. “Looking at all the buildings next to it, you can imagine the amount of damage there is [the vicinity]”.
There was no immediate information about casualties.
The Israeli Air Force said in a statement that its fighter jets bombed two high-rise buildings in Gaza, claiming they housed “military infrastructure” belonging to Hamas.
It was not immediately clear whether one of those buildings referred to by the Air Force was the Palestine Tower.
Not the first time
Israel has a long record of carrying out strikes on buildings and residential towers located inside the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
These actions, which the Israeli military refers to as “precision strikes” targeting armed groups, often occur in densely populated areas and result in civilian casualties.
During the 11-day conflict in Gaza in 2021, Israel targeted four towers, destroying three of them, including one that housed the offices of Al Jazeera and The Associated Press.
Amnesty International, based in London, had previously raised concerns about Israeli military tactics, stressing that repeated attacks on residential buildings in Gaza show a disregard for the well-being of Palestinian civilians, and could constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.
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