A tower housing AP, Al Jazeera offices collapses after Israeli missile strikes in Gaza City.  (Photo: Reuters / Mohammed Salem)

United Nations, May 16 (RHC)-- UN head Antonio Guterres expressed dismay over growing civilian casualties in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and criticized the destruction of media offices in Gaza.  The Israeli Army claims the tower housed Hamas operatives.

“The Secretary-General reminds all sides that any indiscriminate targeting of civilian and media structures violates international law and must be avoided at all costs,” Guterres’ spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement on behalf of the United Nations secretary general.

Guterres was particularly “dismayed by the increasing number of civilian casualties, including the death of ten members of the same family, including children, as a result of an Israeli airstrike last night in the al-Shati camp in Gaza, purportedly aimed at a Hamas leader,” he added.

While Guterres said he was “deeply disturbed by the destruction by an Israeli airstrike today of a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed the offices of several international media organizations” – including the Associated Press and Al Jazeera – the IDF insisted that Hamas was also using the building for “intelligence gathering” and that it had thus become a “lawful military target.”