Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defends the strike on the Gaza tower that housed the Associated Press and Al Jazeera bureaus, alleging it also hosted a Palestinian “terrorist” intelligence office.
“An intelligence office for the Palestinian terrorist organization [was] housed in that building that plots and organizes the terror attacks against Israeli civilians,” Netanyahu tells CBS News.
“So it is a perfectly legitimate target. I can tell you that we took every precaution to make sure that there were no civilian injuries, in fact, no deaths.”
A thick column of smoke rises from the Jala Tower as it is destroyed in an Israeli airstrike after the IDF warned the occupants to leave, Gaza City, May 15, 2021 (MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)
Asked if he had provided any evidence of Hamas presence in the building in a call later Saturday with US President Joe Biden, Netanyahu said, “We pass it through our intelligence people.”
Netanyahu gives no time frame for when Israel would be ready to halt its side of the fighting after nearly a week of Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rocket barrages.
“We hope that it doesn’t continue very long, but we were attacked by Hamas,” he says.
Asked about reports that Hamas had agreed to an Egypt-brokered cease-fire but Israel had not, he said, “That’s not what I know.”
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