Israeli airstrike in Gaza destroys building with AP bureau, Al-Jazeera

An Israeli airstrike has destroyed a highrise building that housed The Associated Press offices in the Gaza StripThe airstrike Saturday came roughly an hour after the Israeli military ordered people to evacuate the building There was no immediate explanation for why the building was targetedThe building houses The Associated Press AlJazeera and a number of offices and apartmentsEarlier the Israeli air raid on a densely populated refugee camp in Gaza City killed at least 10 Palestinians from an extended family mostly children early Saturday in the deadliest single strike of the current battle with Gazas Hamas rulers Both sides pressed for an advantage as ceasefire efforts gathered strengthThe latest outburst of violence began in Jerusalem and has spread across the region with JewishArab clashes and rioting in mixed cities of Israel There were also widespread Palestinian protests Friday in the occupied West Bank where Israeli forces shot and killed 11 peopleThe spiraling violence has raised fears of a new Palestinian intifada or uprising at a time when there have been no peace talks in years Palestinians on Saturday were marking Nakba Catastrophe Day when they commemorate the estimated 700000 people who were expelled from or fled their homes in what was now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation That raised the possibility of even more unrestAlso read Israel threatens Gaza ground invasion despite truce effortsUS diplomat Hady Amr arrived Friday as part of Washingtons efforts to deescalate the conflict and the UN Security Council was set to meet Sunday But Israel turned down an Egyptian proposal for a oneyear truce that Hamas rulers had accepted an Egyptian official said Friday on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiationsSince Monday night Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel which has pounded the Gaza Strip with strikes In Gaza at least 139 people have been killed including 39 children and 22 women in Israel seven people have been killed including a 5yearold boy and a soldierEarly Saturday an airstrike hit a threestory house in Gaza Citys Shati refugee camp killing eight children and two women from an extended familyMohammed Hadidi told reporters his wife and five children had gone to celebrate the Eid alFitr holiday with relatives She and three of the children aged 6 to 14 were killed while an 11yearold is missing Only his 5monthold son Omar is known to have survivedChildrens toys and a Monopoly board game could be seen among the rubble as well as plates of uneaten food from the holiday gatheringThere was no warning said Jamal AlNaji a neighbor living in the same building You filmed people eating and then you bombed them he said addressing IsraelWhy are you confronting us Go and confront the strong people The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment Hamas said it fired a salvo of rockets at southern Israel in response to the airstrikeLater on Saturday the military notified the building owner that it was about to strike the highrise in Gaza City where The Associated Press and other media outlets including Al Jazeera have their offices Residents of the building including AP staff evacuated The army told the AP that staff should evacuate immediatelyA furious Israeli barrage early Friday killed a family of six in their house and sent thousands fleeing to UNrun shelters The military said the operation involved 160 warplanes dropping some 80 tons of explosives over the course of 40 minutes and succeeded in destroying a vast tunnel network used by HamasLt Col Jonathan Conricus a military spokesman said the military aims to minimize collateral damage in striking military targets But measures it takes in other strikes such as warning shots to get civilians to leave were not iquestfeasible this timeiquest Israeli media said the military believed dozens of militants were killed inside the tunnels The Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups have confirmed 20 deaths in their ranks but the military said the real number is far higherGazas infrastructure already in widespread disrepair because of an IsraeliEgyptian blockade imposed after Hamas seized power in 2007 showed signs of breaking down further compounding residents misery The territorys sole power plant is at risk of running out of fuel in the coming daysThe UN said Gazans are already enduring daily power cuts of 812 hours and at least 230000 have limited access to tap water The impoverished and densely populated territory is home to 2 million Palestinians most of them the descendants of refugees from what is now IsraelThe conflict has reverberated widely Israeli cities with mixed Arab and Jewish populations have seen nightly violence with mobs from each community fighting in the streets and trashing each others propertyLate on Friday someone threw a firebomb at an Arab familys home in the Ajami neighborhood of Tel Aviv striking two children A 12yearold boy was in moderate condition with burns on his upper body and a 10yearold girl was treated for a head injury according to the Magen David Adom rescue serviceIn the occupied West Bank on the outskirts of Ramallah Nablus and other towns and cities hundreds of Palestinians protested the Gaza campaign and Israeli actions in Jerusalem Waving Palestinian flags they trucked in tires that they set up in burning barricades and hurled stones at Israeli soldiers At least 10 protesters were shot and killed by soldiers An 11th Palestinian was killed when he tried to stab a soldier at a military positionIn east Jerusalem online video showed young Jewish nationalists firing pistols as they traded volleys of stones with Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah which became a flashpoint for tensions over attempts by settlers to forcibly evict a number of Palestinian families from their homesOn Israels northern border troops opened fire when a group of Lebanese and Palestinian protesters on the other side cut through the border fence and briefly crossed One Lebanese was killed Three rockets were fired toward Israel from neighbouring Syria without causing any casualties or damage It was not immediately known who fired themThe tensions began in east Jerusalem earlier this month with Palestinian protests against the Sheikh Jarrah evictions and Israeli police measures at AlAqsa Mosque a frequent flashpoint located on a mount in the Old City revered by Muslims and JewsHamas fired rockets toward Jerusalem late Monday in an apparent attempt to present itself as the champion of the protestersPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Hamas will iquestpay a very heavy priceiquest for its rocket attacks as Israel has massed troops at the frontier US President Joe Biden has expressed support for Israel while saying he hopes to bring the violence under controlHamas has fired some 2000 rockets toward Israel since Monday according to the Israeli military Most have been intercepted by antimissile defenses but they have brought life to a standstill in southern Israeli cities caused disruptions at airports and have set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem