Anadolu Agency journalists defiant after Israel bombs Gaza office

Moments after he heard a loud explosion, Anadolu Agency photographer Ali Jadallah opened the window of his office to a frantic ruckus outside.

Locals from neighbouring buildings warned him that the Israeli military was about to target his office and to get out fast.

Jadallah and a colleague were the only two people in the office at the time and wasted no time fleeing, grabbing and carrying whatever they could.

Shortly afterwards, Israeli warplanes bombed the six-storey building, which housed the news outlet’s Gaza office, turning it into a heap of concrete and mangled metal beams.

The attack on May 4 destroyed almost all the agency’s equipment, but that has not stopped Jadallah and his colleagues from continuing their work.

“It’s an unbearable feeling honestly,” he told TRT World. “We didn’t stop covering, whether it was before the strikes, during the strikes, or after the strikes.”

The response from Jadallah’s bosses both inside and outside Gaza was equally defiant; that their work would continue and that a new office would be established in due course.

Palestinian journalists in Gaza, like Jadallah, have become accustomed to the horrors of war.

Israel has launched frequent bombing campaigns on the besieged territory, killing thousands over the past decade.

Journalists have often found themselves caught up in the campaigns and even targeted by the Israeli army.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Information, at least 17 journalists were killed during the 2014 Gaza War.

A UN report in February also found that Israel intentionally shot journalists during the Great March of Return protests at the border fence separating Gaza from Israel.

'We will not stop'

Jadallah’s colleague, the award-winning photographer Mustafa Hassouna, who has been wounded four times by the Israeli military, said that even with the history of conflict, the targeting of media outlets by Israel was unacceptable.

He told TRT World that he had previously thought that working for an international organisation would give him a degree of safety from Israeli attacks but that perception had now been shattered.

Nevertheless, like Jadallah, Hassouna, who won plaudits for an iconic image of a Palestinian protester throwing a stone at Israeli soldiers, says he has no plans to quit.

“We are delivering a message and this is our duty. We will not stop just because we’re being targeted. Only death can stop us, it’s the nature of our job,” he said.

“We will not stop just because we’re targeted.”

Yasser al Banna, the head of Anadolu Agency’s Gaza bureau, said that there was a reasoning behind the targeting of journalists by Israel.

“Israel targets the media in a deliberate way,” he said, adding: “It wants to horrify journalists so they don’t expose the crimes of the occupation against the Palestinian people.”

He explained: “Palestinian journalists, or journalists in general, in these lands are eyewitnesses who deliver news about what’s happening to the world.” He added that around 40 Palestinian journalists had been killed by Israel in Gaza since 2000.

For Jadallah, it is not enough that Palestinian journalists take a stand against Israel’s killing of members of the media, fellow journalists around the world also need to speak out.

“We call upon all journalists...to stand in solidarity with Palestinian journalists and to always expose the crimes of the occupation,” he said.

Additional reporting by Ahmed Ghoneim, Yousef Basam, and Surhay Kilic