Anadolu Agency voices solidarity with media outlets targeted by Israeli warplanes

ANKARA (AA) - Following a devastating airstrike, Turkey’s top news provider has offered international media outlets targeted by Israel the use of its offices and services in Gaza to continue their duties.

“We at the Turkish global wire Anadolu Agency are appalled by the Israeli military targeting and destroying” the offices in Gaza of the US' Associated Press and Qatar’s Al Jazeera, wrote Serdar Karagoz, Anadolu Agency's director-general, in letters to Associated Press CEO Gary Pruitt and Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer al-Thani, Al Jazeera’s chairman.

“Since this recent conflict has escalated over the past week, there is an apparent pattern of targeting journalists who are carrying out their professional duties so as to block coverage of the situation on the ground,” he said.

Karagoz stressed that the international community “must say stop” to Israel targeting journalists and innocent civilians, especially children.

Journalists are documenting human rights violations and war crimes in the conflict and helping write history, said Karagoz, adding that it is “unacceptable” that Israeli forces target media outlets to try to choke off the free flow of information.

Our prayers are with the journalists who narrowly escaped Israel’s bombing, he added.

- Journalists targeted by Israel

Israeli warplanes on Saturday destroyed a tower building in Gaza that housed the offices of various media outlets, including Al Jazeera and The Associated Press.

Anadolu Agency’s reporters have also been targeted by Israeli forces twice, said Karagoz, with six of its employees injured during the last week.

“Our Middle East News Editor Turgut Alp Boyraz was shot in the leg with two plastic bullets during a brutal police raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque,” he said.

He expressed solidarity with media outlets and condemned the attacks, urging all media outlets and other institutions worldwide “to denounce the bombings and hold Israeli authorities accountable.”

“In this hour of grief, kindly convey our deepest sympathies to your staff working in Gaza,” he added.

Karagoz also stressed the importance of showing solidarity and unity in such difficult times “to uphold the principles of fair, objective journalism and the valued doctrine of freedom of the press, which is under immense threat from Israeli authorities.”