“Give us 10 minutes”: how Israel bombed the Gaza media tower Freedom of the Press News

Youmna al-Sayed had less than an hour to reach security.

Working on a single elevator in the Al-Jalaa Tower, the 11-story building in Gaza City houses 60 apartments and a number of offices, including the Al Jazeera Media Network and The Associated Press. stairs.

“We left the elevator for the elderly and to evacuate children,” the Palestinian autonomous journalist said. “And we all ran down the stairs and anyone who could help the kids went down,” he added. “I myself helped the two children of the neighbors there and took them to the ground floor. They were all running.”

Moments earlier, six days in a row, the Israeli army, which is bombing Gaza, warned by telephone that residents had only an hour to vacate the building. his plane was attacked by planes.

Al Jazeera’s Safwat al-Kahlout also had to move quickly. He and his colleagues “started collecting everything they could from personal office equipment and especially from cameras,” al-Kahlout said.

But more time was needed.

“Give it 15 minutes,” an AP reporter asked over the phone with an Israeli intelligence official. “We have a lot of equipment, including cameras, other things,” he added from outside the building. “I can get all of that out.”

The owner of the building, Jawad Mahdi also tried to earn more time.

“What I’m asking for is to let four people … go inside and get the cameras,” he told the officer. “We respect your wishes. If you don’t accept we won’t, but give us 10 minutes.”

“It won’t be 10 minutes,” the officer replied. “No one is allowed to enter the building. We have already given them an hour to evacuate.”

When the request was rejected, Mahdi said, “You have destroyed the work, the memories, the lives of our lives. I’ll hang on, whatever you want to do. There is a God. “

The Israeli army claimed that the “military interests of Hamas intelligence” were in the building, the standard line used after the bombing of Gaza’s buildings, and accused the group that ran the territory of using journalists as human shields. However, he did not provide any evidence to support the claims.

“I’ve been working in this office for over 10 years and I’ve never seen anything like it [suspicious]”, Said Al-Kahlout.

AP VIDEO: Associated Press staff evacuated the Gaza City office in an Israeli attack before the building was destroyed. https://t.co/Ib5T2SohXq

– Associated Press (@AP) May 15, 2021

“I asked my colleagues if they had seen anything suspicious and they all confirmed to me that they had never seen a military party, or even fighters coming in and out,” he added.

“In our building, we have a lot of families that have been around for over 10 years. We get together every day when we go in and out of the office.”

AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt also told Al Jazeera: “I can say that we have been in that building in our office for 15 years. We certainly didn’t make any sense that Hamas was there.”

Al-Sayed, who covered up the Israeli bombing of Al Jazeera and worked for the AP, said he could not understand what threat the building that houses families and offices for lawyers, doctors and media workers could pose.

“Where is the alarm for this? Where are the Hamas or the military that could be in this building? asked the Gaza neighbor.

“People here, neighbors, everyone knows each other. The first five floors are for existing offices [closed] at this time of scaling. So that’s basically what it is [still here] are the two media and residential apartments of Al Jazeera and AP. “

Still, at 15:12 (12:12 GMT), the first Israeli strike arrived. Five minutes later, the al-Jalaa tower fell to the ground after a dark cloud of dust and debris was sent into the air after three missiles struck. There was no immediate news of the dead.

“Memories of years, years of work in this building, all of a sudden, are all rubble,” said al-Kahlout, who often broadcast from his roof around the tower. “It’s gone.”

BREAKDOWN: Israeli airstrikes level the building in Gaza City and other international media outlets in Gaza City.

Follow our LIVE coverage: https://t.co/RvtP1lEX1x pic.twitter.com/pr963DBTde

– Al Jazeera ingelesa (@AJEnglish) May 15, 2021

Islam az-Zaeem, a lawyer working in the building, was knocked on the door by his cousin – the owner of the Johara building, which was leveled on the night of May 13 – and told him that al-Jalaa was about to be destroyed.

“I ran to the building and saw neighbors and other workers gathered outside,” az-Zaeem told Al Jazeera.

“I went inside and took the stairs because there was no electricity and the elevators weren’t working. I was hysterical, and I fell into the darkness several times, screaming and crying. ”

Az-Zaeem, who had nine legal partners and four fellows working on his floor, said he left the building five minutes before it was leveled.

“Even after the building collapsed, I kept shouting that I forgot to lock my office door,” he said. “Imagine that.”

The building, built in the mid-1990s, was one of the oldest uprisings in Gaza City.

Fares al-Ghoul, executive director of the Mayadeen Media Group, said his company was in the Shorouq building before it was destroyed by Israeli missiles on May 13th.

“The upper floors of Shorouq were targeted in the 2014 war,” he said. “In 2019, we moved the company to the al-Jalaa building because we thought it would be safer because it housed the offices of international media agencies.”

“Now both are destroyed,” he said.

The bombing of Al-Jala, highly condemned As an attempt to “silence” journalists reporting on Israel’s offensive, an Israeli airstrike occurred at the Shati refugee camp and occurred just hours later. he killed 10 members of the same family – Eight children, two women – Celebrating Eid al-Fitr, a religious holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

At least 145 Palestinians, including 39 children, have been killed on the Gaza Strip since Israeli airstrikes began on Palestinian coastal territory on Monday. Another 950 were injured.

The violence comes after a plan to forcibly evict Palestinian families from East Jerusalem and its occupations Attacks on Palestinian worshipers Protests spread in the Al-Aqsa mosque building in Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and within Israel. Hamas said it had begun firing rockets at Israel in response to Israeli repression. At least nine people have been killed in Israel.

As night fell in Gaza, families and journalists began returning to al-Jalaara to retrieve some items buried under the rubble.

“A person came back looking for paintings made by his daughter because those paintings had many memories,” said al-Kahlout, who continued to complain from the streets of the bombed enclave. “We went outside and now we are applying emergency plans to make reports. We are trying to be safe. There is no safe place in Gaza, but we are trying to do our best. “

NEWS: Israeli airstrikes level the media building with ours @My_Memes and AP offices .. we are watching live while it is being developed. Beyond SHOCKED !!! No words. pic.twitter.com/PnIQXCap6Z

– Sara Khairat Sarah kirt (@sarakhair) May 15, 2021

Meanwhile, Al-Sayed al-Shifa was rushed to the hospital because he believed it was a safe space to transmit. “It’s devastating,” al-Jalaa said of the flattening of the building.

“I worked in that place and when I saw my heart breaking to the ground, it was deplorable. We have great memories at work or wherever we live, ”he added.

“What about those families who have lost their homes, who have lost everything they saved to get those apartments? In Gaza, it is not an easy thing to get an apartment, and now in a few minutes, [they] lost everything.

“Words can’t describe the number of catastrophes. They can’t describe the tragedy that people are experiencing.”

A Palestinian policeman is among the rubble of the al-Jalaa building [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]

With additional news from the author @LinahAlsaafin.