Secretary of State Antony Blinken claims that he hasn’t been shown evidence to justify Israel’s airstrike of the building in Gaza, which housed the Associated Press and Al-Jazeera offices.
“Shortly after the strike we did request additional details regarding the justification for it,” Blinken said at a news conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, choosing not to address specifics, adding that he “will leave it to others to characterize if any information has been shared and our assessment that information,” according to the Associated Press.
“I have not seen any information provided,” he continued.
ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE DESTROYS BUILDING HOUSING MEDIA OUTLETS’ OFFICES
The Israeli Defense Forces contend there were Hamas operatives in the building, noting that they warned the media outlets in the building an hour in advance of the strike, though they have not shared evidence to support the claim publicly.
On Sunday, Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said, “We’re in the middle of fighting. That’s in process, and I’m sure, in due time, that information will be presented.”
The Associated Press, which shared the partially residential building with al-Jazeera, is “shocked and horrified” about the airstrike and claims the Israeli military “have long known the location of our bureau and knew journalists were there,” according to a statement from the outlet’s president and CEO Gary Pruitt, issued shortly after the strike occurred.
Pruitt challenged the Israeli government to provide evidence to back up the claim that Hamas was in the building in a subsequent statement.
He said they had “no indication” of Hamas’s presence there and added it’s “something we actively check to the best of our ability. We would never knowingly put our journalists at risk.”
“The Israeli government says the building contained Hamas military intelligence assets,” he added. “We have called on the Israeli government to put forward the evidence. AP’s bureau has been in this building for 15 years.”
On Sunday, Sally Buzbee, AP’s executive editor, said it would be “appropriate” for an independent investigation of the strike to take place.
A day prior to Blinken’s comments, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the airstrike during an interview on CBS News’s Face the Nation, adding that the Israelis “share” intelligence with “our American friends,” though he did not elaborate.
“Well, we share with our American friends all that intelligence, and here’s the intelligence we had: It’s about an intelligence office for the Palestinian terrorist organization housed in that building that plots and organizes the terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, so it’s a perfectly legitimate target,” he said, noting that there were “no deaths” as a result of the strike.
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Since the start of the latest flare-up in tensions between Israel and Gaza, at least 188 Palestinians have been killed so far in Gaza, including 55 children and 33 women after a series of Sunday airstrikes that flattened three buildings in the area, according to the Associated Press.
In Israel, at least eight have been pronounced dead, including a 5-year-old and a soldier, as Hamas has launched thousands of rockets, though Israel’s Iron Dome defense system has intercepted a significant majority of them.
