Agence France-Presse says an IDF missile or rocket hit the 11-story building Nov. 3 in Gaza City, where AFP operates a news office that was heavily damaged.
The office was unoccupied because the journalism team evacuated the area October 16 at the urging of the IDF, The Times of Israel reported.
In a statement, an IDF spokesman denied Israel had fired the missile that hit the building.
After the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, which killed 1,400 people, the IDF vowed to hunt down and attack Hamas terrorists from one end of the Gaza Strip to the other. Artillery and airstrikes have pounded hundreds of targets in northern Gaza for weeks to prepare for a ground assault that began in the north. IDF now plans to cut off Hamas from fleeing south.
Curtis Houck of the Media Research Center points out that Gaza City has become a war zone. So nobody should be surprised, he says, a building was struck.
Houck says AFP coverage is defending Hamas and scolding Israel for waging war on the terrorists.
“They decide they want to be morality police, and judge and jury, of what's right and what's wrong,” he complains. “When really what they're doing is they just aid Hamas.”
In fact, Hamas and the Palestinians enjoy fawning and sympathetic coverage from most news outlets that view Palestinians as victims and Israel as a cruel aggressor, like a slave and a slave master.
Last week, after President Biden said he did not trust casualty figures in Gaza claimed by the Gaza Ministry of Health, numerous White House reporters unhappily complained and demanded to know why. The reason is because the health agency is a “front for Hamas,” said John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman.
MRC senior analyst Bill D'Agostino reported on the media's reaction to the Gaza hospital that was supposedly struck by the IDF. Not one skeptical reporter, he points out, questioned how a death toll in the hundreds could be determined so quickly.
In a related story, MRC media analyst Geoffrey Dickens documented nine recent examples of Hamas-sympathizing coverage.
Back in March, AFP was caught editing a Hamas quote about “occupation” and “settlements” on the other side of the Gaza border fence to remove those phrases. The “occupation” refers to the land the state of Israel occupies today dating back to 1948. The reference to “settlements” refers to Jewish homes built in disputed areas such as the West Bank.
Houck says AFP operating in Gaza is similar to CNN operating a news bureau in Baghdad with the blessing of Saddam Hussein.
“They looked away at most, if not all, of the things that Saddam was doing because they wanted access,” he recalls. “They wanted to be able to be there.”
