On Saturday, the building where the Associated Press’ (AP) Gaza City bureau was staying was bombed and destroyed by Israeli military forces sparking questions about why the AP allegedly rented office space in the same building that Israeli officials alerted Hamas terrorists were operating out of.
According to the AP, on Saturday, the Israeli military alerted the building’s owner that the high-rise structure would be destroyed. Within an hour of the warning, three missiles hit the building and completely destroyed it. That’s what happens when you declare war on a much stronger military force.
The AP said, “For 15 years, the AP’s top-floor office and roof terrace were a prime location for covering Israel’s conflicts with Gaza’s Hamas rulers, including wars in 2009 and 2014. The news agency’s camera offered 24-hour live shots as militants’ rockets arched toward Israel and Israeli airstrikes hammered the city and its surrounding area this week.”
The AP folks were able to skedaddle once they heard the news they might be turned into rubbish and ashes.
The AP continued, “The building also housed the offices of Qatari-run Al-Jazeera TV, as well as residential apartments. The Israeli military said it targeted the building because it contained assets of Hamas intelligence agencies, which it said were using media offices as ‘human shields.’ It did not provide evidence for the claims.”
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) maintained that the building was targeted for destruction because “Hamas military intelligence assets” used the building to plan attacks.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELThe IDF took to social media to explain.
“After providing advance warning to civilians & time to evacuate, IDF fighter jets struck a multi-story building containing Hamas military intelligence assets.
The building contained civilian media offices, which Hamas hides behind and deliberately uses as human shields.”
After providing advance warning to civilians & time to evacuate, IDF fighter jets struck a multi-story building containing Hamas military intelligence assets.
The building contained civilian media offices, which Hamas hides behind and deliberately uses as human shields. pic.twitter.com/zeDjEquePD
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 15, 2021
While journalists expressed outrage over the AP bureau being destroyed, others wanted to know why, as the IDF claimed, the AP shared a building with Hamas terrorists.
Erick Erickson, a conservative radio host, asked, “Will someone ask the @AP if they were paying rent to a designated terrorist organization or were they accepting a gift from a designated terrorist organization?”
https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1393579398918508547
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) adviser Steve Guest tweeted:
“Are we just going to ignore the fact AP and Al Jazeera worked in the same building as Hamas terrorists?”
Are we just going to ignore the fact AP and Al Jazeera worked in the same building as Hamas terrorists? https://t.co/EJXRlYFiQM
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) May 15, 2021
Guest was responding to White House press secretary Jen Psaki who tweeted, “We have communicated directly to the Israelis that ensuring the safety and security of journalists and independent media is a paramount responsibility.”
Jen needs to put a Psaki in it. The Israelis were attacked by Hamas terrorists and their very survival is at stake. The Biden administration would do much more good if they told news media outlets to not remain in places where Israel’s enemy is occupying.
How soon the outrage merchants in the media and DC forget that during the Iraq war Iraqi soldiers and insurgents would go into mosques and hospitals and fire at American troops expecting the Americans to not fire back. I guess Hamas terrorists figured the same thing would apply here, and that Israeli forces would never attack a building that had the AP inside. But the terrorists always forget that the Geneva convention says that if the enemy uses a hospital or a religious building as cover and fire from them at the enemy they are no longer a hospital or religious building in the eyes of war.
Piers Morgan also took to social media to show his outrage, tweeting, “This is absolutely appalling,” only to have conservative writer David Harsanyi respond, “You’re not appalled that AP shares a building with Hamas?”
You're not appalled that AP shares a building with Hamas?
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) May 15, 2021
Morgan needs to learn that people don’t win wars by wearing sandals while floating candles down a river and singing Kumbaya.
The Israelis didn’t have to warn anyone. They didn’t start this war and they have every right to win it which no country can if they have to check in with every news organization to see if they’re sharing space with enemy terrorists.
Gary Pruitt the head of the AP said he was “shocked and horrified” by the airstrike.
“We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza,” Pruitt said in a statement. “They have long known the location of our bureau and knew journalists were there. We received a warning that the building would be hit.” And so they should have gotten out.
Does anyone reading this believe that Hamas or any other Muslim terrorist group would have warned people, especially Western news agencies, that they were bombing that building?
“This is an incredibly disturbing development. We narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life. A dozen AP journalists and freelancers were inside the building and thankfully we were able to evacuate them in time,” Pruitt added. “The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today.”
I think the world learned a lot from this incident. Don’t share space with terrorists who are bombing innocent people and expect to walk away unscathed. They are lucky it was the Israelis because no other military warns people of imminent strikes to lessen civilian casualties.
