Intel: Blinken hasn't personally seen evidence that Hamas used the building housing AP, Al Jazeera
Israel says the building was used by the Palestinian militant group, but it has not publicly provided any evidence to back up that claim.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that the United States asked the Israeli government for evidence that Hamas was in the Gaza building that housed several media offices before Israel destroyed it on Saturday, but he personally has “not seen any information provided.”
An Israeli airstrike targeted the Jala'a building in Gaza City on Saturday afternoon, obliterating the newsrooms of Al Jazeera and The Associated Press. No casualties were reported from the strike, as the journalists and other occupants of the high-rise were given one hour to evacuate.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says the building was “an important base of operations” for Palestinian militant group Hamas, which for the past week has been firing rockets into Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CBS’s "Face The Nation" on Sunday, without elaborating, that Israel has evidence indicating the Jala'a building was “a perfectly legitimate target."
On Sunday, an unnamed Israeli diplomatic source told The Jerusalem Post that “we showed [the Americans] the smoking gun proving Hamas worked out of that building. … I understand they found the explanation satisfactory.”
