Turkey on Saturday strongly condemned Israeli strikes that destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed the offices of various media groups, with Turkish Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun calling it a "blow to the freedom of the press" in a tweet.
"Israel continues to carry out massacres and commit war crimes. The occupying Israel, which targets the Associated Press and Al Jazeera offices in Gaza, has also inflicted a blow to the freedom of the press. I condemn Israel's heinous attacks on press centers in order to conceal its massacres," Altun said.
Turkey's presidential spokesperson also condemned the Israeli attack in Gaza.
"Israel targets int'l press building in Gaza, adding to its war crimes in the Palestinian territories. We condemn this Israeli aggression, which knows no boundaries," Ibrahim Kalin said on Twitter.
"Our fight against this malignant power will continue until the occupation is over & Palestine is liberated," he wrote.
Israeli warplanes on Saturday destroyed a building in Gaza City housing the offices of various media groups, including Qatari media group Al-Jazeera and the American Associated Press.
An Anadolu Agency (AA) correspondent reported that several Israeli missiles hit the al-Jala tower.
The 13-story building, one of Gaza's oldest multistory buildings, had a total of 60 units, including offices of media companies, legal firms and doctors.
The offices of Mayadeen Company for media services, the radio station Voice of Prisoners, and the Doha Media Center were among the media offices destroyed by Israeli shelling.
In the past week, Israel has targeted the press and Turkish journalists, drawing condemnation from press institutions around the world.
Ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed over a hundred with fatalities that include dozens of minors. A total of 145 people, including 41 children and 23 women, have been killed and 1,100 more injured since Israel started attacks on Gaza on May 10.
The airstrikes on Gaza were preceded by days of tensions and Israeli aggression in occupied East Jerusalem, where hundreds of Palestinians were assaulted by Israeli forces and settlers in Al-Aqsa Mosque and in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move that has never been recognized by the international community.
