Israeli airstrike destroys building housing media organisations in Gaza

An Israeli airstrike has destroyed a high-rise building that housed some media organisations in Gaza City, on Saturday.

The airstrike reportedly came nearly an hour after military ordered people to evacuate the building which housed The Associated Press (AP), Al-Jazeera, and other offices and residential apartments.

The strike on the 12-story building was said to have occurred in the afternoon after the owner of the building received a call from the Israeli military warning that it would be hit.

The building was said to have been evacuated immediately after the warning. No casualty has been recorded.

The airstrike is the latest amid the current conflict between Isreal and Hamas, an Islamist resistance group.

Earlier, an Israeli air raid on a refugee camp in Gaza City led to the death of not less than ten Palestinians, including eight children.

Two women were also killed in the attack.

According to the Israeli army, hundreds of rockets have been fired from Gaza towards different locations in Israel since Monday night.

Though most of the rockets have been intercepted by anti-missile defenses, there have been disruptions in Israeli cities.

Isreal, in retaliation, has also fired strikes into the Gaza strip, killing many persons.

At least 139 people have been killed, including 39 children and 22 women in Gaza while about 950 people have been wounded since hostilities flared up on Monday.

In Israel, about nine people have also been killed.

Despite international calls for an immediate halt of all hostilities, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a broadcast address on Friday, vowed that Hamas will “pay a very heavy price” for its rocket attacks on Israel.

Netanyahu said Israel “would exact a very heavy price from Hamas and the other terrorist organizations.”

“We are doing so and we will continue to do so with great force,” he had said.

“The last word has not been said and this operation will continue as long as necessary in order to restore the quiet and security to the State of Israel.”

You can read up on the crisis in TheCable explainer.