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As Sky News building hit by Israeli missile – correspondent warns that no one in Gaza can feel safe

By William Turvill

A Sky News reporter, who was in a Gaza building hit by an Israeli missile, has said that no journalists or civilians can feel safe in the city.

Middle East correspondent Sam Kiley was in the media office hit by a missile yesterday morning that injured six journalists.

No Sky News journalists were hurt in the blast, but one al Quds television cameraman had to have his leg amputated.

A spokesman for the Israel Defence Force has said that the airstrikes were targeted at a Hamas antenna on the roof of the media building, not at the foreign media themselves.

Israeli military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich told Sky News: "The media building was taken by Hamas to be used as human shields – we see this time after time, year after year.

"Hamas chose, out of all the buildings in the Gaza Strip, to choose this building – the media, civilian building – to place its electronic infrastructure and communications on the rooftop.

"The target was on the roof and only that target was hit."

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She recommended that all journalists and civilians avoid Hamas sites in order to avoid the airstrikes.

But Kiley has questioned how anyone is supposed to tell what Hamas sites are and said the attack indicates “in a general sense that no one in Gaza can feel safe”.

"It isn't easy for the 1.7 million Gazans to know what is considered a target by Israel and what is not," he said.

"Hamas don't put a flag on each of their firing positions. They are extremely well camouflaged. Large numbers of them are indeed hidden in built-up areas and on waste ground.

"There are known Hamas areas, but there are a lot of unknown areas and there are lots more subtle things, like radio transmission, relay stations and such, which is presumably what they were hitting on the building we were in.”

On Thursday, BBC Arabic journalist Jihad Misharawi lost his 11-month-old son and aunt when a piece of shrapnel hit his house after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

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