News Brief
Swarajya Staff
May 15, 2021, 06:42 PM | Updated 07:05 PM IST
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As rockets fired by Hamas from Gaza continued to rain on Israeli cities on Saturday (15 May), the country intensified operations against the terror group and threatened to launch a ground invasion of the Hamas-ruled territory.
Apart from calling up 9,000 reservists for a possible ground invasion, Israel Defense Forces targeted Hamas in multiple airstrikes.
According to Al Jazeera, a building that housed the office of the media outlet was hit in one of the airstrikes launched by the Israeli Air Force.
Oh my god. The building where al Jazeeraâs office is housed has just been taken down by Israeli airstrikes. There was a warning and evacuated. It houses offices and private homes. I canât believe it. pic.twitter.com/Q4luRYk9H9
— Stefanie Dekker (@StefanieDekker) May 15, 2021
Reports say the building housed offices of international multiple media outlets, including the local bureau of The Associated Press.
Residents of the building were requested to leave before the building was hit and flattened in the air strike, Al Jazeera said.
Al Jazeera, owned by the state of Qatar, has been accused of being sympathetic toward Islamists by many countries, including Arab nations like Egypt.
Al Jazeera’s anti-Israel bias and lack of objectivity on the issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is well documented, experts said.
However, Israel Defense Forces said the high-rise building was targeted because it housed military assets used by the intelligence wing of Hamas.