Press TV reporter injured in Israeli airstrike on Gaza

Press TV correspondent Akram al-Sattari has been injured in an Israeli airstrike on a hotel that housed journalists in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Sattari sustained injuries and was taken to hospital after an Israeli rocket hit the hotel in the early hours of Wednesday.

The hotel had already been hit twice prior to al-Sattari’s injury.

Al-Sattari is being treated in the hospital.

The office of Agence France-Presse was also hit by three Israeli rockets that struck the sixth floor of the building on Tuesday night.

Also on Tuesday, Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed three Palestinian journalists in their cars.

Two of those killed were cameramen working for Al-Aqsa TV. Mohammed Thouraya, head of the station, said the two were driving in a car with press markings in Gaza City on Tuesday afternoon, shortly after wrapping up an assignment at the city's al-Shifa Hospital.

Thouraya added that the bodies of the two, Mohammed al-Koumi and Hussam Salam, were badly burned.

The Moscow-based Russia Today news station reported on November 18 that its office on the top floor of the Showa Media Center in Gaza City "was destroyed after (an) Israeli airstrike hit the building."

The attack occurred after the office of Press TV in Gaza was hit twice earlier in the day. During the bombings, a Press TV cameraman sustained injuries.

At least seven more Palestinians were injured in fresh Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday night.

Medical officials in Gaza said 21 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday. An Israeli soldier and a civilian died when rockets exploded near the Gaza frontier.

Gaza medical officials say more than 140 people have died in Israeli strikes, mostly civilians.

In all, five Israelis have died, including three civilians, who were killed last week.

Israel has conducted more than 1,450 aerial and sea attacks against the Gaza Strip since November 14.

Hamas military wing, the Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades, announced late on Tuesday that it has fired 1,426 missiles fired into Israel so far.

The Israeli military frequently carries out airstrikes and other attacks on the Gaza Strip, saying the actions are being conducted for defensive purposes. However, in violation of international law, disproportionate force is always used and civilians are often killed or injured.

Gaza has been blockaded since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.

The apartheid regime of Israel denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.
In response, Palestinian resistance fighters have fired retaliatory rockets and missiles into the Israeli-occupied lands. / HK