Biden tells Israel to protect media after office destroyed
US president speaks to both sides on phone but death toll rises as hostilities continue
JOE BIDEN last night told Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel must protect journalists after its military bombed a building in Gaza housing one of America’s largest news organisations.
In his most direct intervention since the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians erupted last week, the US president spoke to the Israeli prime minister after the 12-storey tower block was levelled by air strikes.
The Associated Press said the attack on its offices, which also housed Al Jazeera, aimed to silence reporting from the Palestinian territory. Israel said the block also contained offices of Hamas, the militant group that controls the enclave, without producing evidence.
The White House said Mr Biden “raised concerns about the safety and security of journalists and reinforced the need to ensure their protection”. Mr Biden also telephoned Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president.
Last night, Mr Netanyahu vowed that Israel will continue to strike in Gaza “as long as necessary”.
Yesterday Hamas rockets breached the Iron Dome defence system. Earlier, an Israeli strike on a refugee camp reportedly killed 10 members of a family.
US PRESIDENT Joe Biden made calls to the leaders of Israel and the West Bank last night as tensions rose after Israeli missiles flattened a building housing international media in the Gaza Strip.
Israel was accused of trying to silence Gaza by targeting the offices of the American news service Associated Press and Qatari TV station Al-Jazeera.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, told Mr Biden in a phone call that Israel “is doing everything to avoid harming” non-combatants. The Israel Defence Forces said the media offices also housed Hamas militants who were using journalists as “human shields’’.
The White House said Mr Biden “raised concerns about the safety and security of journalists and reinforced the need to ensure their protection” in his phone call with Mr Netanyahu.
The US president “reaffirmed his strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas” and raised concerns about “the intercommunal violence across Israel”.
Mr Netanyahu, blaming Hamas for starting nearly a week of hostilities by firing rockets at Israel, said last night in a televised speech: “The party that bears the guilt for this confrontation is not us, it’s those attacking us.
“We are still in the midst of this operation, it is still not over and this operation will continue as long as necessary.”
Mr Biden also spoke directly with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas yesterday for the first time since he took office in January. It came as Hamas launched rockets deep into Israel for a sixth day, killing at least one citizen.
The attack on the Jala Tower, which for years housed the offices of the Associated Press and Al-Jazeera, came hours after another Israeli air strike killed 10 members of an extended family in a house in western Gaza, the deadliest incident of the latest hostilities.
The AP, one of America’s largest media organisations, said the attack on its offices aimed to silence reporting from the territory.
“The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today,” AP’s president and CEO Gary Pruitt said in a statement.
“This is an incredibly disturbing development. We narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life,” he said.
Hours later, Israel bombed the home of Khalil al-Hayeh, a Hamas leader, saying his home served the group’s “terrorist infrastructure”.
Hamas has fired more than 2,300 rockets from Gaza at Israeli population centres since Monday, causing widespread panic and killing 10 people.
With no sign of the violence abating, a US envoy flew in on Friday to meet both sides and push for a truce.
Moving images and video were broadcast showing a two-month-old baby being pulled alive from rubble after at least 10 members of its extended family were killed in an Israeli bombing overnight.
Al-Jazeera broadcast its toppling live on air. “Al-Jazeera will not be silenced,” a presenter for the channel said after an explosion brought the tower down in a huge cloud of dust.
The Qatari-owned channel also broadcast footage showing the building’s owner, Jawwad Mahdi, pleading over the phone with an Israeli intelligence officer for more time after receiving warning that the tower would be bombed.
After the officer on the other end of the phone denied his request, Mr Mahdi said: “You have destroyed our life’s work, memories, life. I will hang up. Do what you want. There is a God.”
The strike on Jala Tower followed the firing of more Hamas missiles towards the coastal city of Tel Aviv, where beachgoers scrambled for cover as air raid sirens wailed.
A 50-year-old Israeli man was killed when a rocket that was not destroyed by the Iron Dome defence system landed on his residential building in the suburb of Ramat Gan. Israeli officials have now reported 10 dead, including one soldier and two children.
“We will not let this terror go unanswered,” the Israeli military said.
Hamas said the missiles were in retaliation for a “massacre against women and children” at Al-Shati camp in western Gaza, where the two-month-old baby was reportedly the only survivor.
The incident was the deadliest strike since hostilities erupted on Monday.
At least 139 people, including 39 children, have been killed in Gaza, Palestinian health officials said.
Meanwhile Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and beyond protested to mark Nakba Day, the annual May 15 commemoration of the destruction of their homeland in 1948 amid the founding of the state of Israel.
Thousands of protesters marched in support of Palestinians in London and major cities across the world. Several thousand protesters carrying placards reading “Stop Bombing Gaza” and chanting “Free Palestine” met at Hyde Park before marching towards the Israeli embassy on Kensington High Street.
The fighting has been accompanied by communal violence as mobs of Jews and Palestinians clash in Israeli communities. Palestinians and Arab Israelis have been beaten, amid arson and vandalism attacks.