GAZA/JERUSALEM: Reuters reacts to an Israeli attack on a building housing media including its own staff in Gaza.

Record ID: 353832

  • Title: GAZA/JERUSALEM: Reuters reacts to an Israeli attack on a building housing media including its own staff in Gaza.
  • Date: 15th January 2009
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (JANUARY 15, 2009) (REUTERS) REUTERS BUREAU CHIEF FOR ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES, ALASTAIR MACDONALD (SOUNDBITE) (English) REUTERS BUREAU CHIEF FOR ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES, ALASTAIR MACDONALD, SAYING: "Well, there was heavy fighting going on around the office building that houses our bureau in Gaza. We were in fact at that time in cont
  • Embargoed: 30th January 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: War / Fighting,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVACCMDK12MYHWC8GBABP0IZRH2R
  • Story Text: Reuters reacts to an explosion at its offices in Gaza City. A building housing several media organisations in the Palestinian enclave came under Israeli fire, injuring at least one journalist.
    An explosion blasted a tower block in Gaza City on Thursday (January 15) that houses the offices of Reuters and several other media organisations.
    Colleagues said a journalist for the Abu Dhabi television channel had been wounded.
    Reuters journalists working there at the time said an Israeli missile or shell appeared to have struck the southern side of the 13th floor of the Al-Shurouq Tower in the city centre.
    Reuters evacuated the bureau, though a live camera feed that has been providing images from Gaza throughout the war continued to function. Live television images from another site showed smoke pouring from the upper floors of the 16-storey building.
    Colleagues said at least one journalist working for Abu Dhabi television on the 14th floor was wounded.
    The 13th floor houses a local television production company. The Reuters bureau is on the 12th floor.
    Reuters journalists on the spot said they had not been aware of any presence of armed men in the building beforehand.
    An Israeli army spokesman had spoken with Reuters staff in Jerusalem shortly before the explosion to check the location of the Reuters bureau in Gaza. Reuters had provided the coordinates of its office to the army at the start of the war and was assured on several occasions that it was not a target.
    An army spokeswoman said after the blast that she was checking. She said troops were engaged with Hamas guerrillas in exchanges of fire in the city and said fighters had taken over a media office in the same area late on Wednesday (January 14).
    "Well, there was heavy fighting going on around the office building that houses our bureau in Gaza. We were in fact at that time in contact with the Israeli army, checking with them that they knew where our staff were and where they were working. We were assured that they were.
    Shortly after that, an explosion hit the floor just above us, shrapnel entered the office. It also struck the offices of another media company, two floors above ours. One person at least there was wounded, we understand. We have evacuated our office. Our live camera position which has been transmitting images throughout the war now appears to have gone down. We are seeing images from elsewhere, showing that there is a fire now raging in our building and our staff -- there were six in the office at the time -- they are safe, but they have had to take shelter elsewhere and are not able to work,"
    Reuters Bureau Chief of Israel and the Palestinian territories, Alastair Macdonald, explained.

    "Long before this war and certainly since the war began, we have been in contact with the Israeli army, ensuring that they know the location of our office. It's on the twelfth from of a very prominent tower block in the centre of Gaza City and we've been assured that this is not a target. We are very, very disturbed that throughout the contacts we have had this morning, no suggestion was made that we should be evacuating. We've been told by the army now that they are looking into it. They don't know, but they understand that there were exchanges of fire. That's what they've told us. We are saying that certainly none of our staff and their colleagues in the other organisations in our building, were aware of any armed men in our building," he added.
    During the U.S. assault on Baghdad in April 2003, a Reuters cameraman was killed and three colleagues were wounded when a U.S. tank fired at the Reuters bureau in the Palestine Hotel. A Spanish television cameraman was also killed.
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