Gaza team evacuates, responds with outstanding coverage as airstrike destroys AP’s building
By Fares Akram, Najib Jobain, Rashed Rashid, Khalil Hamra, Hatem Moussa, Adel Hana, Mohammed Jahjouh and Wafaa Shurafa
Last Saturday afternoon, the AP’s staff in the Gaza Strip received an urgent call: They had less than an hour to evacuate the office before the Israeli military planned to destroy the entire building. The call came just a day after correspondent Fares Akram published a first person diary piece describing how his family farm had been bombed: “The Associated Press office is the only place in Gaza City I feel somewhat safe,” he wrote.
In minutes,that feeling was shattered. Fares and his colleagues scrambled to pack up whatever equipment and belongings they could carry. Even as they rushed to safety, they continued reporting the news. Cairo-based senior producer Najib Jobain turned his cell phone toward his colleagues and captured video of the frantic evacuation. Gaza senior producer Wafaa Shurafa immediately set up a live shot on a neighboring building and photographer Hatem Moussa,who had been badly wounded in fighting in 2014, found a position nearby.
An Israeli airstrike hits the high-rise building, right, housing bureaus of The Associated Press, Al-Jazeera and other media outlets, as well as offices and apartments, in Gaza City, May 15, 2021. The attack came roughly an hour after the Israeli military ordered people to evacuate the building. The building was reduced to rubble. – AP Photo / Hatem Moussa
A ball of fire erupts from a building housing various international media, including the AP, after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, May 15, 2021. – Mahmud Hams / Pool Photo via AP
The 12-story building housing the AP and other media outlets collapses moments after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, May 15, 2021. – AP Photo / Hatem Moussa
The building housing the offices of the AP and other media outlets collapses after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, May 15, 2021. – AP Photo / Hatem Moussa
A woman and child who live in the Gaza City high-rise housing the AP and other media outlets, evacuates the building after Israel warned that the building would be destroyed in an airstike, May 15, 2021. – AP Photo / Hatem Moussa
Smoke, dust and debris erupt as an Israeli airstrike flattens the high-rise building that housed the AP’s offices in Gaza City, May 15, 2021. – AP Photo / Khalil Hamra
Jawad Mahdi, owner fo the building that was for 15 years the location of AP’s Gaza bureau, surveys the rubble shortly after shortly after the building was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike, May 15, 2021. – Image from AP video
A woman cries out while standing amid the rubble of the building that housed The Associated Press, in Gaza City, May 16, 2021, one day after the building was flattened by an Isaeli airstrike. – AP Photo / Adel Hana
Moments later, an Israeli airstrike flattened the 12-story building, destroying a bureau that had served as a second home and sanctuary in one of the world’s most challenging war zones. Jobain’s camera captured the jaw-dropping images of the building collapsing into a pile of dust, while Moussa’s lens caught an image of an Israeli missile slamming into the building. Freelancer Mohammed Jahjouh had already filmed a dramatic moment with the building’s owner unsuccessfully pleading with the army in a phone call to delay the airstrike; he then captured the building’s destruction from the street, joined by still photographer Khalil Hamra.
By the end of the day,Jobain had set up a new live rooftop position on a neighboring building to capture images of Israeli airstrikes and Palestinian rocket launches. The following day, plans were in place to set up a temporary bureau in a hotel.
Akram wrote another first-person account after Saturday’s airstrike. “Now, my Gaza City office — the place that I thought was sacrosanct and would go untargeted because both AP and al-Jazeera’s offices were located on its top floors — is a pile of rubble and girders and dust.”
Palestinians inside the Al-Aqsa mosque clash with Israeli security forces in Jerusalem’s Old City, May 10, 2021, the latest in a series of confrontations pushing the contested city to the brink of eruption. Palestinian medics said at least 180 Palestinians were hurt in the violence at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, including 80 who were hospitalized. – AP Photo / Mahmoud Illean
Israelis run to shelters as air raid sirens sound during a Jerusalem Day march in Jerusalem, May 10, 2021. Explosions were heard in Jerusalem after the air raid warning. – AP Photo / Ariel Schalit
Smoke and flames rise from the Gaza Strip after an Israeli strike, May 10, 2021. – AP Photo / Hatem Moussa
People grieve in a hospital over the body of a man who died following an explosion in the town of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, May 10, 2021. The Hamas militant group launched a rocket strike on Jerusalem after hundreds of Palestinians were hurt in clashes with Israeli police at the iconic Al-Aqsa mosque. Israel responded Monday with airstrikes across the Gaza Strip. – AP Photo / Mohammed Ali
Rockets are launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip, May 11, 2021. – AP Photo / Hatem Moussa
Palestinian mourners carry the body of 11-year-old Hussain Hamad, who was killed by an explosion during the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, during his funeral in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, May 11, 2021. – AP Photo / Khalil Hamra
Relatives of 11-year-old Hussain Hamad, who was killed by an explosion during the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, mourn during his funeral in the family home in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, May 11, 2021. – AP Photo / Khalil Hamra
A Israeli soldier takes cover as an Iron Dome air defense system launches to intercept a rocket from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, May 11, 2021. – AP Photo / Ariel Schalit
People take cover as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, in the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon, May 11, 2021. – AP Photo / Ariel Schalit
Jacob Simona stands by his burning car during clashes with Israeli Arabs and police in the Israeli mixed city of Lod, Israel, May 11, 2021. – AP Photo / Heidi Levine
An Israeli missile targets a building in Gaza City, May 12, 2021, as Israel and Hamas engaged each other in a series of rocket attacks. – AP Photo / Khalil Hamra
Smoke rises from a collapsed building after it was hit by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, May 12, 2021. – AP Photo / Khalil Hamra
Members of Sror family inspect the wreckage of their apartment after it was hit overnight by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Petah Tikva, central Israel, May 13, 2021. – AP Photo / Oded Balilty
Julianna Sror looks over the damage to her apartment after it was hit overnight by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Petah Tikva, central Israel, May 13, 2021. – AP Photo / Oded Balilty
Palestinians walk past the remains of a 15-story building after Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, May 13, 2021. – AP Photo / Khalil Hamra
Friends and relatives of Israeli soldier Omer Tabib, 21, mourn during his funeral at the cemetery in the northern Israeli town of Elyakim, May 13, 2021. The Israeli army confirmed that Tabib was killed in an anti-tank missile attack near the Gaza Strip, the first Israeli military death in the current fighting between Israelis and Palestinians. – AP Photo / Sebastian Scheiner
Relatives of Israeli soldier Omer Tabib, 21, mourn during his funeral at the cemetery in the northern Israeli town of Elyakim, May 13, 2021. He was first Israeli military death in the current fighting between Israelis and Palestinians. – AP Photo / Sebastian Scheiner
Smoke and debris erupt during Israeli airstrikes on a building in Gaza City, May 13, 2021. – AP Photo / Hatem Moussa
A man inspects the damaged wall of a residential building after a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, Israel, May 14, 2021. – AP Photo / Ariel Schalit
A Palestinian relative mourns over the bodies of four young brothers from the Tanani family who were found under the rubble of a destroyed house following Israeli airstrikes in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, May 14, 2021. – AP Photo / Khalil Hamra
Palestinians inspect their destroyed homes following overnight Israeli airstrikes in the town of Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, May 14, 2021. – AP Photo / Khalil Hamra
Israeli border police swing their batons at Muslim worshippers to prevent them from gathering for Friday prayers at the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, May 14, 2021. – AP Photo / Mahmoud Illean
A woman surveys the damage to her home after it was struck by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Sderot, southern Israel, May 15, 2021. – AP Photo / Ariel Schalit
Israeli security forces and emergency services personnel work on a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ramat Gan, central Israel, May 15, 2021. – AP Photo / Oded Balilty
Palestinian rescuers pull a survivor from the rubble of a destroyed residential building following deadly Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, May 16, 2021. The airstrikes flattened three buildings and killed at least 26 people, medics said. – AP Photo / Khalil Hamra
People take pictures of a damaged synagogue after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, Israel, May 16, 2021. – AP Photo / Tsafrir Abayov
Mourners pray over the bodies of 17 Palestinians who were killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, May 16, 2021. – AP Photo / Sanad Latifa
The destruction of the building capped a difficult week in which Gaza came under intense Israeli aerial bombing and thousands of rockets were launched into Israel. AP’s staff on both sides of the conflict rose to the occasion presenting fast,accurate stories,vivid photography,gripping video. And in a textbook example rock-solid news judgment,AP resisted picking up a false report that Israel had launched a ground invasion of Gaza — that was a joint decision between regional news director Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Fared Akram in Gaza.
For extreme dedication in the most difficult of circumstances,and their commitment to covering the conflict even at great personal risk,the Gaza team of Fares Akram,Najib Jobain,Rashed Rashid,Khalil Hamra,Hatem Moussa,Adel Hana, Mohammed Jahjouh and Wafaa Shurafa is the unanimous pick for Best of the Week honors.
Visit AP.org to request a trial subscription to AP’s video,photo and text services.