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Strike on AFP’s Gaza Bureau Causes Significant Damage

This picture taken on November 3, 2023 shows a gaping hole following a strike on the Hajji building, which houses several offices including those of Agence France Presse (AFP) in Gaza City amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (AFP)
This picture taken on November 3, 2023 shows a gaping hole following a strike on the Hajji building, which houses several offices including those of Agence France Presse (AFP) in Gaza City amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (AFP)
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Strike on AFP’s Gaza Bureau Causes Significant Damage

This picture taken on November 3, 2023 shows a gaping hole following a strike on the Hajji building, which houses several offices including those of Agence France Presse (AFP) in Gaza City amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (AFP)
This picture taken on November 3, 2023 shows a gaping hole following a strike on the Hajji building, which houses several offices including those of Agence France Presse (AFP) in Gaza City amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (AFP)

Agence France-Presse's Gaza City bureau was significantly damaged by a strike on the building, according to a staff member who visited Friday as the Israeli military relentlessly pounds the territory.

AFP is the only one of the world's three major international news agencies currently operating a live video feed from Gaza City, which has not been interrupted despite the damage.

The unmanned AFP camera broadcasting live 24/7 captured the moment of the strike, a few minutes before midday (1000 GMT) on Thursday.

An AFP employee who visited the office on Friday said an explosive projectile appeared to have entered the technician's office in the bureau horizontally from east to west.

The strike destroyed the wall opposite the window and caused significant damage to the adjacent room and other doors. It also punctured water tanks on the roof.

An Israeli military spokesman said the force had "checked (the report) multiple times".

"There was no IDF (Israeli military) strike on the building" in Gaza, he told AFP.

Images published by AFP on Friday show a gaping hole in the wall of the 11-storey building in the west of Gaza's Rimal neighborhood, near the port.

"AFP condemns in the strongest possible terms this strike on its Gaza City bureau," said Fabrice Fries, AFP chairman and chief executive.

"The location of this bureau is known to everyone and has been pointed out several times over the past few days, precisely to prevent such an attack and to allow us to continue to provide images on the ground.

"The consequences of such an attack would have been devastating if the AFP team on the ground had not evacuated the city," said Fries.

'Dangerous conditions'

None of AFP's eight staff usually based in Gaza City were in the bureau at the moment of the strike.

The team was evacuated to southern Gaza on October 13, following an Israeli military order directed at residents in the north of the Hamas-run territory.

Asked about the attack during a news conference in Tel Aviv, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that journalists in Gaza must be protected as they report on the war.

"It's vitally important how Israel does this (conducts the war), including with the highest regard for the protection of civilians, and that of course includes journalists," Blinken told journalists.

He said journalists were "doing extraordinary work under the most dangerous conditions to tell the story to the world".

In May 2021, during a previous Hamas-Israel war, the Israeli military completely destroyed a 13-floor building which hosted the US agency Associated Press (AP) and Qatar's Al Jazeera.

Israel at the time said targeting the building was "perfectly legitimate" as it was based on information from its intelligence service.

The ongoing war erupted when Hamas militants crossed from Gaza into southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.

More than 9,200 people have been killed in retaliatory Israeli strikes unleashed to "crush" Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the health ministry in the Palestinian territory says.

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Arab World

UN Says It's Ready to Ramp Up Delivery of Desperately Needed Aid to Gaza

A Palestinian man rides a donkey-pulled cart along a street on a misty morning in Khan Yunis in the northern Gaza Strip on January 17, 2025, as Israel's security cabinet is expected to approve a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
A Palestinian man rides a donkey-pulled cart along a street on a misty morning in Khan Yunis in the northern Gaza Strip on January 17, 2025, as Israel's security cabinet is expected to approve a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
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UN Says It's Ready to Ramp Up Delivery of Desperately Needed Aid to Gaza

A Palestinian man rides a donkey-pulled cart along a street on a misty morning in Khan Yunis in the northern Gaza Strip on January 17, 2025, as Israel's security cabinet is expected to approve a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
A Palestinian man rides a donkey-pulled cart along a street on a misty morning in Khan Yunis in the northern Gaza Strip on January 17, 2025, as Israel's security cabinet is expected to approve a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)

The United Nations said Wednesday that it’s ready to ramp up the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza following a ceasefire agreement and urged the removal of major security and political obstacles so supplies can reach all Palestinians in need.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the announcement of a deal to pause the fighting “a critical first step” and told reporters that the UN’s top priority must be to ease the tremendous suffering caused by the conflict triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in southern Israel, The Associated Press said.
“The humanitarian situation is at catastrophic levels,” he said. “From our side, we will do whatever is humanly possible, aware of the serious challenges and serious constraints that we will be facing.”
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said aid agencies have been mobilizing supplies in preparation for a ceasefire to scale up deliveries of food, medical supplies and other key items.
Less than half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are functional, water production is at a quarter of capacity, 95% of school buildings have been damaged or destroyed and nearly all of Gaza’s 2.1 million people are facing high levels of food insecurity, said Catherine Russell, executive director of the UN children’s agency UNICEF.
The top UN humanitarian official for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, met with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials in recent days to discuss how to increase aid after a ceasefire agreement, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday.
Kaag’s meetings focused on trying to overcome challenges to deliveries that could remain even after the deal, including gunmen stripping convoys of aid, Israeli restrictions on access to Gaza, road damage, unexplored ordnance, fuel shortages and a lack of telecommunications equipment, he said.
The UN humanitarian office reported Tuesday that “Israeli authorities continue to deny UN-led efforts to reach people with vital assistance,” Dujarric said. In northern Gaza, where Israel launched its latest offensive, the UN has been denied access to deliver food supplies since Dec. 20, he said.
In addition to the lawlessness, the United Nations faces a major political obstacle. Its humanitarian operation in Gaza depends on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, which Israel’s parliament voted to ban from operating in the Palestinian territories. That legislation takes effect on Jan. 28.
Guterres has said there is no UN agency that can replace UNRWA, and if it is banned from operating, Israel as the occupying power in the Palestinian territories must take responsibility for providing aid.
UN officials said it’s imperative that the ceasefire deal is fully implemented and aid is allowed to flow freely.
“With the collapse of essential services across Gaza, we must act urgently to save lives and help children recover,” Russell of UNICEF said in a statement.
Guterres said the United Nations expects its efforts to be matched by other humanitarian organizations, the private sector and government initiatives.
David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee, said aid groups must be given full access and adequate funding to rush aid to Gaza’s people after 15 months with limited food, clean water and medical care. He said his organization would quickly ramp up efforts: “The needs are immense and need urgent attention.”
Jan Egeland, a former UN humanitarian chief who heads the Norwegian Refugee Council, said, “Israel must immediately lift all restrictions on aid and humanitarian agencies to avert famine-like conditions and ensure access to shelter, food, and medical care for all in need.”
He called on the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and other nations “to make sure Israel does keep all crossings open, enabling a sustained flow of aid that can alleviate further suffering.”
US President Joe Biden, speaking in Washington, said, “The surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza will begin. And the innocent people can have a greater access to these vital supplies.