Dany Alwan stood shaking as rescue workers pulled remains from piles of rubble where his brother’s building once stood. An Israeli airstrike destroyed the three-story residential building in the quiet Christian village of Aito a day before. His brother, Elie, had rented out its apartments to a friend who'd fled here with relatives from their hometown in southern Lebanon under Israeli bombardment. UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon staying put despite Israeli warnings to move Things were fine for a few weeks. But that day, minutes after visitors arrived and entered the building, it was struck. Almost two dozen people were killed, half of them women and children. Israel said it targeted a Hezbollah official, as it has insisted in other strikes with high civilian death tolls. This strike — in northern Lebanon, deep in Christian heartland — was particularly unusual. Israel has concentrated its bombardment mostly in the country’s south and east and in Beirut's southern suburbs — Shiite-majority areas where the Hezbollah militant group has a strong presence. Strikes in the traditionally “safe” areas where many displaced families have fled are raising fears among local residents. Many feel they have to choose between helping compatriots and protecting themselves. “We can’t welcome people anymore,” Alwan said as rescue teams combed through the rubble in Aito. “The situation is very critical in the village, and this is the first time something like this has happened to us.” The war brings out long-running tensionsAito is in the Zgharta province, which is split between Christian factions who are supporters and critics of Hezbollah. Some Christian legislators critical of Hezbollah have warned of the security risks that could come with hosting displaced people, mostly from the Shia Muslim community. They worry that many may have familial and social ties to Hezbollah, which in addition to its armed wing has civilian services across southern and eastern Lebanon. Some also worry that long-term displacement could create demographic changes and weaken the Christian share in Lebanon’s fragile sectarian power-sharing system. The tiny country has a troubled history of sectarian strife and violence, most notably in a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990. Lebanon for decades has struggled to navigate tensions and political gridlock within its sectarian power-sharing government system. Parliament is deeply divided among factions that back and oppose Hezbollah and has been without a president for almost two years. When Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinian ally Hamas in the war-torn Gaza Strip, the move was met with mixed feelings. Critics say it was a miscalculation that has brought the widespread devastation of Gaza here. Many have been moved to helpAfter nearly a year of low-level fighting, the Israeli military escalated its attacks against Hezbollah a month ago, launching daily aerial bombardments and a ground invasion. Most of Lebanon’s estimated 1.2 million displaced people fled over the past month. In late September, traffic jams stretching for miles clogged streets leading to Beirut as people left, some with nothing but the clothes on their backs. For many, the violence has moved them to help their fellow residents, cutting across sectarian lines. Michella Sfeir, who was safe in the north, said she wanted to take action after seeing a picture of a driver pouring water from his bottle into a nearby driver’s empty one. “The first thing you can think of is: How can I help immediately?” she said. She now helps prepare meals at a women’s art center that's become a community kitchen and donation dropoff center for blankets, clothes, and supplies in Aqaibe, a seaside town just north of Beirut. Displaced women who found shelter in surrounding neighborhoods regularly visit, while some people involved in other initiatives help deliver the hot meals to shelters around dinnertime. “We get lots of questions like, ‘When you go to give the help, is there a member of Hezbollah waiting for you at the door?’” Sfeir said, citing blowback in the community from people who perceive the displaced as Hezbollah members, supporters and relatives. “Some people ... would ask us ‘Why are you helping them? They don’t deserve it; this is because of them.'” Anxiety rises far from the borderThough northern coastal cities such as Byblos and Batroun with pristine beaches and ancient ruins have not felt the direct pain of the conflict, anxiety is rising in surrounding areas. On one coastal road — the busy Jounieh highway — an Israeli drone struck a car earlier this month, killing a man and his wife. Such rare but increasing Israeli strikes have rattled residents in the north. Many feel torn: Should they risk their security by hosting displaced people, or compromise their morals and turn them away? Zeinab Rihan fled north with family and relatives from the southern Nabatiyeh province when they couldn’t bear the airstrikes approaching closer to their homes. But, Rihan said, they found many landlords quoting outlandish rent figures in an apparent attempt to turn them away. Some might have been acting out of personal prejudice, Rihan said, but it's likely most were simply afraid. “They were scared that they might rent their place to someone who turns out to be targeted,” Rihan said. “But this is our current reality, what can we do?” For some, helping is a sense of dutyA resident of one northern town near the coast said the local government didn't want to welcome displaced people, but many residents pressured the municipality to change course. He cited the town’s common sympathy and sense of duty to help others, despite the security risks. He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of stirring tension among residents. Elsewhere, in the hilly village of Ebrine, a stone’s throw away from Batroun, residents have been regularly visiting dozens of displaced families sheltering in two modest schools. This month, an Israeli strike hit a village a short drive away, but that hasn't stopped some residents from hiring the displaced — for some, to work in olive groves during the harvest season. Back in Aqaibe, some displaced women from nearby areas have joined Sfeir and others volunteering at the kitchen: chopping vegetables, cooking rice in vats, packaging meals in plastic containers, and having coffee together on the balcony. “Just because we’re in an area that doesn’t have direct conflict or direct war doesn’t mean that we’re not worried about Beirut or the south,” said Flavia Bechara, who founded the center, as she took a break from chopping onions and potatoes. “We all used to eat the olives and olive oil of the south, and we used to go there to get fruits and vegetables.” Bechara and several women finished packing dozens of meals for the day, and a group of women came to pick up winter clothes for their kids. Bechara said she isn’t phased by the criticism or questions she gets from some of her neighbors. “There’s always anxiety," said Bechara, who just recently could hear strikes a short drive away, in Maisra. "There’s always (the fear) that what is happening there can happen here at any moment.”

An Israeli airstrike on a compound housing journalists in southeast Lebanon has killed three media staffers, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Friday. The Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV said two of its staffers were among the journalists killed early Friday. Al-Manar TV of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said its camera operator Wissam Qassim was killed in the airstrike on the Hasbaya region, that has been spared much of the fighting along the border so far. UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon staying put despite Israeli warnings to move Al-Mayadeen said camera operator Ghassan Najar and broadcast technician Mohammed Rida died. Local news station Al Jadeed aired footage from the scene — a collection of chalets that had been rented by various media outlets — showing collapsed buildings and cars marked PRESS covered in dust and rubble. The Israeli army did not issue a warning prior to the strike. Earlier in the week, a strike hit an office belonging to Al-Mayadeen on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Several journalists have been killed since near-daily exchange of fire began along the Lebanon-Israel border on Oct. 8, 2023. In November 2023, two journalists for Al-Mayadeen TV were killed in a drone strike. A month earlier, Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded other journalists from France’s international news agency, Agence France-Presse, and Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV.

Nearly 16 hours after an Israeli airstrike hit across the street from Beirut’s main public hospital, rescuers were still removing debris Tuesday from the overcrowded slum area. An excavator was digging at one of the destroyed buildings, picking out twisted metal and bricks in search for bodies. Residents standing on mounds of debris said an entire family remained missing under the rubble. Mohammad Ibrahim, a Sudanese national, came looking for his brother. “His mobile phone is still ringing. We are trying to search for him,” he said. “I don’t know if he is dead or alive.” Hours later, health officials said five bodies had been recovered from under the rubble. At least 18 people were killed, including four children, and at least 60 wounded in the strike that also caused damage across the street at the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the capital’s main public medical facility. Jihad Saadeh, director of the Rafik Hariri Hospital, said the strike broke several glass windows and the solar panels of the medical facility, which continued to operate despite the damage and the panic. None of the staff was injured. Saadeh said the hospital received no warning of the impending strike, just a few meters (yards) across the street. Neither did the residents of the slum area, where several buildings were crammed and which houses several migrant workers as well as working class Lebanese. The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah target, without elaborating. It added had not targeted the hospital itself. It was hard for rescue equipment to reach the area of clustered settlements and dusty narrow roads. Nizar, one of the rescuers, said he had been at the site of the explosion since Monday night. “It was too dark and there was so much panic,” he said, giving only his first name in line with the rescue team’s regulations. “People didn’t understand yet what had happened.” The overcrowded slum was covered in debris, furniture and remains of life poking out of the twisted metal and broken bricks. Residents who survived the massive explosion were still in shock, some still searching through the debris with their hands for their relatives or what is left of their lives. Gunmen stood guard at the site. The Lebanese Civil Defense said Tuesday five buildings were destroyed and 12 sustained severe damage. The dead included one Sudanese and at least one Syrian. “This is a very crowded area; buildings are very close. The destruction is massive,” Nizar said, explaining that the scale of the damage made their rescue effort harder. Across the street, the hospital was still treating a few of the injured. The morgue had received 13 bodies. Hussein al-Ali, a nurse who was there when the attack happened, said it took him a few minutes to realize it was not the hospital that was hit. Dust and smoke covered the hospital lobby. The glass in the dialysis unit, the pharmacy and other rooms in the hospital was shattered. The false roof fell over his and his colleagues' heads. “We were terrified. This is a crime,” said al-Ali. “It felt like judgement day.” It took only minutes for the injured from across the street to start streaming in. Al-Ali said he had little time to breathe or reassure his terrified colleagues and the rattled patients. “Staff and patients thought the strike was here. We fled outside as the injured were coming in,” he said. And when he was done admitting the injured, “we came out to carry our (killed) neighbors. They are our neighbors.” Ola Eid survived the strike. She helped dig out her neighbors’ children from under the rubble, before realizing she herself was injured. “The problem is we didn’t feel it. They didn’t inform us. We heard they want to strike al-Sahel hospital,” said Eid, bandaged and still in shock sitting at the hospital gate. Israel had hinted another hospital miles away could possibly be a target, alleging it is housing tunnels used by the Hezbollah militant group. Eid, an actor, said she was playing with her neighbor’s kids when the first explosion hit. It knocked her to the floor and scattered the candy she was handing out to the kids. She stood up, not believing she was still alive, to find her neighbor’s kid soaked in blood. One was killed immediately; the other remained in intensive care. At least 22 killed in airstrikes in central Beirut, with Israel also firing on UN peacekeepers “I looked ahead and saw the kids torn apart and hurt,” she said. “The gas canisters were on fire. I didn’t know what to do — put out the fire or remove the kids.”

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group said an Israeli airstrike late Saturday killed its top commander for the southern Gaza Strip, a day after Israel killed the Iranian-backed group’s commander for northern Gaza in an air raid that triggered the worst cross-border conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants since the end of an 11-day war in 2021. Al-Quda Brigades of Islamic Jihad confirmed Sunday that the airstrike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah had killed Khaled Mansour, the commander, and two fellow militants. It said five other civilians, including a child and three women, were also killed in the airstrike that flattened several homes in Rafah. Late Saturday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said 24 people have been killed so far in the coastal strip, including six children. The number doesn’t likely include all of those who were killed in the Rafah airstrike because Civil Defense responders were still looking for bodies and survivors under the rubble. For now, the two highest-ranking commanders in Islamic Jihad and several other militants are among the dead. Israel estimates its airstrikes have killed about 15 militants. Read: Israel, militants trade fire as Gaza death toll climbs to 24 Militants from Islamic Jihad continued firing rockets toward Israel and the Israeli military continued airstrikes on Gaza, though the intensity of the exchange had decreased in the early hours of Sunday. The fighting began with Israel’s killing of a senior Islamic Jihad commander in a wave of strikes Friday that Israel said were meant to prevent an imminent attack. Hamas, the larger militant group that rules Gaza, appeared to remain on the sidelines of the conflict for now, keeping its response limited. Israel and Hamas fought a war barely a year ago, one of four major conflicts and several smaller battles over the last 15 years that exacted a staggering toll on the impoverished territory’s 2 million Palestinian residents. Whether Hamas continues to stay out of the fight depends in part on how much punishment Israel inflicts on Gaza as rocket fire continues. The Israeli military said an errant rocket fired by Palestinian militants killed civilians, including children, late Saturday in the town of Jabaliya, in northern Gaza. The military said it investigated the incident and concluded “without a doubt” that it was caused by a misfire on the part of Islamic Jihad. There was no official Palestinian comment on the incident. A Palestinian medical worker who was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity said the blast killed at least six people, including three children. Israeli airstrikes Saturday killed a 75-year-old woman and wounded six others as they were preparing to go to a wedding. Airstrikes have also destroyed several houses in the Gaza Strip, some of them belonging to Islamic Jihad members. The lone power plant in Gaza ground to a halt at noon Saturday due to a lack of fuel. Israel has kept its crossing points into Gaza closed since Tuesday. With the new disruption, Gazans can use only four hours of electricity a day, increasing their reliance on private generators and deepening the territory’s chronic power crisis amid peak summer heat.

The Associated Press’ top editor on Sunday called for an independent investigation into the Israeli airstrike that targeted and destroyed a Gaza City building housing the AP, broadcaster Al-Jazeera and other media, saying the public deserves to know the facts. Sally Buzbee, AP’s executive editor, said the Israeli government has yet to provide clear evidence supporting its attack, which leveled the 12-story al-Jalaa tower. The Israeli military, which gave AP journalists and other tenants about an hour to evacuate, claimed Hamas used the building for a military intelligence office and weapons development. Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said Israel was compiling evidence for the U.S. but declined to commit to providing it within the next two days. Also read: Israel strike in Gaza destroys building with AP, other media “We’re in the middle of fighting,” Conricus said Sunday. “That’s in process and I’m sure in due time that information will be presented.” Buzbee said the AP has had offices in al-Jalaa tower for 15 years and never was informed or had any indication that Hamas might be in the building. She said the facts must be laid out. “We are in a conflict situation,” Buzbee said. “We do not take sides in that conflict. We heard Israelis say they have evidence; we don’t know what that evidence is.” Also read: AP 'horrified' by Israeli attack on its office “We think it’s appropriate at this point for there to be an independent look at what happened yesterday — an independent investigation,” she added. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday repeated Israel’s claim that the building housed an intelligence office of Hamas. Asked if he had relayed supporting evidence of that in a call with President Joe Biden on Saturday, Netanyahu said “we pass it through our intelligence people.” Buzbee said the AP journalists were “rattled” after the airstrike but are doing fine and reporting the news. She expressed concern about the impact on news coverage. Also read: Israeli military says it bombed home of a top Hamas leader “This does impact the world’s right to know what is happening on both sides of the conflict in real time,” she said. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone Saturday with AP’s president and CEO, Gary Pruitt. The State Department said Blinken offered “his unwavering support for independent journalists and media organizations around the world and noted the indispensability of their reporting in conflict zones.” Buzbee and Conricus spoke on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” and Netanyahu was on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations says the United States “has been working tirelessly through diplomatic channels” to try to end the conflict between Palestinians in Gaza and Israel, and is warning that the current cycle of violence will only put a negotiated two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict further out of reach. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a high-level emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that President Joe Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday and Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken with senior Israeli, Palestinian and regional leaders. Also read: Israeli strikes kill 42, topple buildings in Gaza City At the same meeting, Israel’s U.N. ambassador called the rocket attacks launched by Gaza’s Hamas rulers against Israel “completely premeditated” to gain political power and replace the Palestinian Authority as the leader of the Palestinians. Also read: Israel strike in Gaza destroys building with AP, other media He said the rocketing of Israel was part of “a vicious plan” by Hamas, which not only seeks the destruction of Israel but is vying to take power in the West Bank and was frustrated when Abbas postponed elections last month that would have been the first in 15 years. Also read: Israeli military says it bombed home of a top Hamas leader

The Israeli military said on Saturday that it bombed the home of Khalil al-Hayeh, a top leader of Gaza’s ruling militant Hamas group. The military alleged that the home served as part of what it said was the militant group’s “terrorist infrastructure.” Al-Hayeh is a senior figure in the Hamas political leadership in Gaza. His fate after the strike was not immediately known. Earlier on Saturday, an Israeli airstrike targeted and destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets. An Israeli airstrike on Saturday targeted and destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets. AP’s president said the agency was “shocked and horrified” at the strike. AP staffers and other tenants safely evacuated the building after the military telephoned a warning that the strike was imminent within an hour. Three heavy missiles struck the 12-story building, collapsing it in a giant cloud of dust. For 15 years, the AP’s top-floor office and roof terrace were a prime location for covering Israel’s conflicts with Gaza’s Hamas rulers, including wars in 2009 and 2014. The news agency's camera offered 24-hour live shots as militants’ rockets arched toward Israel and Israeli airstrikes hammered the city and its surrounding area this week. Also read: Israel strike in Gaza destroys building with AP, other media “The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today,” AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt said in a statement. “We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza.” “This is an incredibly disturbing development. We narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life,” he said, adding that the AP was seeking information from the Israeli government and was engaged with the U.S. State Department to learn more. The building also housed the offices of Qatari-run Al-Jazeera TV, as well as residential apartments. The Israeli military said Hamas was operating inside the building, a standard explanation, and it accused the militant group of using journalists as human shields. But it provided no evidence to back up the claims. Hours earlier, another Israeli air raid on a densely populated refugee camp killed at least 10 Palestinians from an extended family, mostly children, the deadliest single strike of the current conflict. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists demanded Israel “provide a detailed and documented justification” for the strike. “This latest attack on a building long known by Israel to house international media raises the specter that the Israel Defense Forces is deliberately targeting media facilities in order to disrupt coverage of the human suffering in Gaza,” the group’s executive director, Joel Simon, said in a statement. Since Monday night, Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, which has pounded the Gaza Strip with strikes. In Gaza, at least 139 people have been killed, including 39 children and 22 women; in Israel, eight people have been killed, including a man killed by a rocket that hit in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv, on Saturday. Also read: AP 'horrified' by Israeli attack on its office The latest outburst of violence started in Jerusalem and spread across the region over the past week, with Jewish-Arab clashes and rioting in mixed cities of Israel. There were also widespread Palestinian protests Friday in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces shot and killed 11 people. The spiraling violence has raised fears of a new Palestinian “intifada,” or uprising, when peace talks have not taken place in years. Palestinians on Saturday were marking Nakba (Catastrophe) Day, when they commemorate the estimated 700,000 people who were expelled from or fled their homes in what was now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation. That raised the possibility of even more unrest. U.S. diplomat Hady Amr arrived Friday as part of Washington’s efforts to de-escalate the conflict, and the U.N. Security Council was set to meet Sunday. But Israel turned down an Egyptian proposal for a one-year truce that Hamas rulers had accepted, an Egyptian official said Friday on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations. As the hostilities continued, an Israeli bombardment struck a three-story house in Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp on Saturday morning, killing eight children aged 14 and under and two women from an extended family. Mohammed Hadidi told reporters his wife and five children had gone to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday with her brother’s wife and three of their children. All were killed instantly, he said. The only known survivor from Hadidi's family was his 5-month-old son Omar; another son, 11-year-old Yahya, was missing, he said. Children’s toys and a Monopoly board game could be seen among the rubble, as well as plates of uneaten food from the holiday gathering. “There was no warning,” Jamal Al-Naji, a neighbor living in the same building, said. “You filmed people eating and then you bombed them?” he said, addressing Israel. “Why are you confronting us? Go and confront the strong people!” The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Hamas said it fired a salvo of rockets at southern Israel in response to the airstrike. The strike on the building housing media offices came in the afternoon, after the owner received a call from the Israeli military warning that the building would be hit within the hour. A video broadcast by Al-Jazeera showed the building’s owner, Jawwad Mahdi, pleading over the phone with an Israeli intelligence officer to wait 10 minutes to allow journalists to go inside the building to retrieve valuable equipment before it is bombed. Also read: Israeli airstrike on Gaza home kills 10, mostly children “All I’m asking is to let four people ... to go inside and get their cameras,” he says. “We respect your wishes, we will not do it if you don’t allow it, but give us 10 minutes.” When the officer rejected the request, Mahdi said, “You have destroyed our life’s work, memories, life. I will hang up, do what you want. There is a God.” Al-Jazeera, the news network funded by Qatar’s government, broadcast the airstrikes live as the building collapsed. “This channel will not be silenced. Al-Jazeera will not be silenced,” Halla Mohieddeen. on-air anchorperson for Al-Jazeera English said, her voice thick with emotion. “We can guarantee you that right now.” Later in the day, the White House responded by saying Israel had a “paramount responsibility” to ensure the safety of journalists covering the spiraling conflict. U.S. President Joe Biden has urged a deescalation in the 5-day conflict between Hamas and Israel, but has publicly backed Israel’s right to self-defense from Hamas rockets fired from Gaza. White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted Saturday that the U.S. had “communicated directly to the Israelis that ensuring the safety and security of journalists and independent media is a paramount responsibility.” A furious Israeli barrage early Friday killed a family of six in their house and sent thousands fleeing to U.N.-run shelters. The military said the operation involved 160 warplanes dropping some 80 tons of explosives over the course of 40 minutes and succeeded in destroying a vast tunnel network used by Hamas. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said the military aims to minimize collateral damage in striking military targets. But measures it takes in other strikes, such as warning shots to get civilians to leave, were not “feasible this time.” Israeli media said the military believed dozens of militants were killed inside the tunnels. The Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups have confirmed 20 deaths in their ranks, but the military said the real number is far higher. Gaza’s infrastructure, already in widespread disrepair because of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamas seized power in 2007, showed signs of breaking down further, compounding residents’ misery. The territory’s sole power plant is at risk of running out of fuel in the coming days. The U.N. said Gazans already are experiencing daily power cuts of 8-12 hours and at least 230,000 have limited access to tap water. The impoverished and densely populated territory is home to 2 million Palestinians, most of them the descendants of refugees from what is now Israel. The conflict has reverberated widely. Israeli cities with mixed Arab and Jewish populations have seen nightly violence, with mobs from each community fighting in the streets and trashing each other’s property. Late on Friday, someone threw a firebomb at an Arab family’s home in the Ajami neighborhood of Tel Aviv, striking two children. A 12-year-old boy was in moderate condition with burns on his upper body and a 10-year-old girl was treated for a head injury, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service. The tensions began in east Jerusalem earlier this month, with Palestinian protests against attempts by settlers to forcibly evict a number of Palestinian families from their homes and Israeli police measures at Al-Aqsa Mosque, a frequent flashpoint located on a mount in the Old City revered by Muslims and Jews. Hamas fired rockets toward Jerusalem late Monday, in an apparent attempt to present itself as the champion of the protesters. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Hamas will “pay a very heavy price” for its rocket attacks.

An Israeli airstrike destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets on Saturday. All AP employees and freelancers evacuated the building safely. AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt has released the following statement: We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza. They have long known the location of our bureau and knew journalists were there. We received a warning that the building would be hit. Also read: Israel strike in Gaza destroys building with AP, other media We are seeking information from the Israeli government and are engaged with the U.S. State Department to try to learn more. This is an incredibly disturbing development. We narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life. A dozen AP journalists and freelancers were inside the building and thankfully we were able to evacuate them in time. Also read: Israeli airstrike on Gaza home kills 10, mostly children The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today.

An Israeli airstrike destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets on Saturday, the latest step by the military to silence reporting from the territory amid its battle with the militant group Hamas. The strike came nearly an hour after the military ordered people to evacuate the building, which also housed Al-Jazeera, other offices and residential apartments. The strike brought the entire 12-story building down, collapsing with a gigantic cloud of dust. There was no immediate explanation for why it was attacked. The strike came hours after another Israeli air raid on a densely populated refugee camp in Gaza City killed at least 10 Palestinians from an extended family, mostly children, in the deadliest single strike of the current conflict. Both sides pressed for an advantage as cease-fire efforts gathered strength. The latest outburst of violence began in Jerusalem and has spread across the region, with Jewish-Arab clashes and rioting in mixed cities of Israel. There were also widespread Palestinian protests Friday in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces shot and killed 11 people. The spiraling violence has raised fears of a new Palestinian “intifada,” or uprising at a time when there have been no peace talks in years. Palestinians on Saturday were marking Nakba (Catastrophe) Day, when they commemorate the estimated 700,000 people who were expelled from or fled their homes in what was now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation. That raised the possibility of even more unrest. U.S. diplomat Hady Amr arrived Friday as part of Washington’s efforts to de-escalate the conflict, and the U.N. Security Council was set to meet Sunday. But Israel turned down an Egyptian proposal for a one-year truce that Hamas rulers had accepted, an Egyptian official said Friday on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations. Since Monday night, Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, which has pounded the Gaza Strip with strikes. In Gaza, at least 139 people have been killed, including 39 children and 22 women; in Israel, eight people have been killed, including the death Saturday of a man killed by a rocket that hit in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv. The strike on the building housing media offices came in the afternoon, after the building’s owner received a call from the Israeli military warning that it would be hit. AP’s staff and others in the building evacuated immediately. Also read: Israeli military says it bombed home of a top Hamas leader Al-Jazeera, the news network funded by Qatar’s government, broadcast the airstrikes live as the building collapsed. “This channel will not be silence. Al-Jazeera will not be silenced,” an on-air anchorwoman said, her voice thick with emotion. “We can guarantee you that right now.” Earlier Saturday, an airstrike hit a three-story house in Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp, killing eight children and two women from an extended family. Mohammed Hadidi told reporters his wife and five children had gone to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday with relatives. She and three of the children, aged 6 to 14, were killed, while an 11-year-old is missing. Only his 5-month-old son Omar is known to have survived. Children’s toys and a Monopoly board game could be seen among the rubble, as well as plates of uneaten food from the holiday gathering.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday accused Iran of attacking an Israeli-owned ship in the Gulf of Oman last week.