Jerusalem24 – Associated Press (AP) announced yesterday it was reopening its office in Gaza, over a year after the building housing the news agency’s office was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike.
The reopening was attended by AP President and CEO Daisy Veerasingham and Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Julie Pace on site to mark the bureau’s official reopening.
“AP’s resilient Gaza team has never wavered, even in the moments our bureau collapsed and in the weeks that followed,” said Veerasingham. “The Associated Press has operated in Gaza for more than half a century and remains committed to telling the story of Gaza and its people.”
The 12 Gaza staff and freelancers were still inside the building when they received a one-hour phone warning before the building’s destruction by an Israeli airstrike on 15 May 2021. The Israeli government claimed Hamas had been operating inside the building, but has failed to provide any evidence of this in the year that has followed.
The news agency’s staff have continued to cover the war and the news in Gaza from temporary workspaces since then.
