Shocking moment journalist in Gaza ducks as neighbouring building is destroyed by an air strike

A Gaza-based journalist was reporting live from a rooftop when a 14 story building opposite her was destroyed by an Israeli air strike - forcing her to duck for cover.

Journalist Youmna Al Sayed was providing updates for Al Jazeera when the missile hit the Al-Shorouk Tower - sending a plume of black smoke into the air.

Moments before the attack, viewers could hear the reporter say: “These were a couple of missiles - warning missiles and right now they should be starting to bring down the entire tower.

“This tower is up to 14-stories. it’s one of the biggest and oldest towers in the Gaza strip and it holds mainly media offices - like almost all almost all the media offices are in this tower.”

Ms Sayed appeared to struggle to move on to her next sentence as a missile targeted the tower making a loud noise.

Soon after the bang, her colleague in the studio asked her if she could hear any drones and she shouted “Oh my gosh. Yes, Yes, Yes I need to go down,” as she took cover.

The attack was part of escalating violence between Israel and Palestine, the worst since the Gaza war in 2014.

On Thursday, Israeli troops massed at Gaza‘s border and Palestinian militants pounded Israel with rockets in intense hostilities that have sparked international concern.

Days of violence between Jewish Israelis and the country’s Arab minority worsened overnight, with synagogues attacked and fighting breaking out on the streets of some communities.

With concern growing that the violence, that flared on Monday, could spiral out of control, the United States is sending an envoy, Hady Amr, to the region.

But efforts to end the worst hostilities in years appear so far to have made no progress.

In renewed air strikes on Gaza, Israel struck a six-storey residential building in Gaza City that it said belonged to Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Palestinian enclave.

At least 83 people have been killed in Gaza since violence escalated on Monday, medics said.

In the latest Palestinian rocket attacks, one rocket crashed into a building near Israel’s commercial capital of Tel Aviv, injuring five Israelis, police said. Sirens blared in cities across southern Israel, sending thousands running for shelters.

Seven people have been killed in Israel, its military said.

Israel has prepared combat troops along the Gaza border and was in “various stages of preparing ground operations”, a military spokesman said, a move that would recall similar incursions during Israel-Gaza wars in 2014 and 2008-2009.

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