JOURNALISTS RIP NETANYAHU FOR JUSTIFYING ATTACK ON NEWS OFFICES

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected criticism of an Israeli airstrike targeting a high-rise building housing foreign media offices in the Gaza strip, earning more condemnation from news organizations worldwide, Saud Abu Ramadan, Cindy Riechau, and Can Merey reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

The building hosted an "intelligence office for the Palestinian terrorist organization [Hamas]" which "plots and organizes the terror attacks against Israeli civilians," Netanyahu told US broadcaster CBS on Sunday.

"So it's a perfectly legitimate target," he added. "We are targeting a terrorist organization that is targeting our civilians and hiding behind them, using them as human shields," he said.

In quick retort, Rapporteurs Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders or RSF) condemned Netanyahu’s attack on the building, with executive director Christian Mihr saying that Hamas using it was not justification.

"Declaring media offices as war targets is a war crime," Mihr wrote on Twitter.

The al-Jala tower, which housed offices of the US news agency Associated Press (AP) and the Qatari television station Al Jazeera, among others, was destroyed by an Israeli air force attack on Saturday.

The Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel and the Palestinian Territories had earlier questioned Israel's commitment to a free press after the destruction of the building.

It said in a statement on Sunday that the decision to destroy the building during the fighting between Israel and Hamas "raises deeply worrying questions about Israel's willingness to interfere with the freedom of the press to operate."

FPA added: "We note that Israel has not presented any evidence to support its claim the building was used by Hamas." The association said it had asked for a meeting with Israeli officials over the incident. The FPA says it has 480 members who work for international media.

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