3-Arabiya TV office in Gaza damaged by bomb

Gaza, Jan 23: An explosion ripped through the office of Al Arabiya television in Gaza City, causing no injuries, police said.

The newsroom was empty when an explosive device placed outside detonated, yesterday police said, destroying the outside door of the office of the Dubai-based Arabic satellite television station and damaging some walls inside.

Militant groups Hamas and the Fatah-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades condemned the attack. Palestinian journalists in Gaza said they would hold a strike today in protest against the bombing.

Arabiya executive editor Nabil al-Khatib said in Dubai the station had received threats against its office but it was not clear if the blast was linked to them. Palestinian police said they were investigating the attack.

The explosion smashed the door of the office of Reuters across the hallway.

An official at the station said anonymous callers last week threatened to harm employees and burn the Arabiya office following a tape the station had aired of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of the governing Hamas group.

Hamas spokesman Ismail Rudwan said the group was not involved in the attack or the telephone threats. Both he and a spokesman for the rival al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group, condemned the blast.

Witnesses said Arabiya employees had not arrived at work for several days.

Hamas said the broadcast of Haniyeh's comments took his words out of context and vowed to pursue legal action against the station if it did not apologise to Haniyeh.

Arabiya officials have said it had shown an unedited recording that was taken from a Palestinian Web site. They also allowed an adviser to Haniyeh to go on the air to explain the group's position on the tape.

Hamas and Fatah have been engaged in a power struggle since Hamas won a parliamentary election in January last year.

Reuters