GAZA CITY
An Israeli tank shelled Al Jazeera news network's office in Gaza City on Tuesday, one of the network's correspondents in the embattled enclave said.
"Al Jazeera's office was targeted this morning with two shells from an Israeli tank stationed on the Gaza Strip's eastern border," Tamer al-Mishal told Anadolu Agency.
"The staff managed to exit safely but the office sustained damage," he added.
Al-Mishal went on to say that the Qatar-owned network will continue to broadcast from Gaza, where an ongoing wide-scale Israeli offensive continues to wreak havoc on the blockaded coastal enclave.
Since July 7, Israeli warplanes and navy, and more recently ground troops, have pounded the embattled coastal enclave with the stated aim of halting Palestinian rocket fire.
At least 583 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the unrelenting attacks.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was quoted by the Israeli daily Haaretz on Monday as saying that his government was seeking to bar Al Jazeera from broadcasting from Israel.
Several journalists have reportedly been wounded in seperate Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate has accused Israeli forces of killing Palestinian cameraman Khaled Hamed while on duty during an indiscriminate shelling on the Shujaya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement Friday that it was "alarmed" by Israeli airstrikes on buildings housing media outlets in Gaza, saying that Israeli military forces know the locations of such outlets.
Israel's military operation, dubbed "Operation Protective Edge," is the self-proclaimed Jewish state's third major offensive against the densely-populated Gaza Strip – which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians – within the last six years.
By Hedaya al-Saidi
www.aa.com.tr/en
