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Alert

MADA condemns arson attack on Ma'an news agency's Gaza headquarters

(MADA/IFEX) - Ramallah, 11 July 2011 - The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) condemns an attempted arson attack on Ma'an news agency headquarters in Gaza by unknown assailants, in the early hours of 10 July 2011.

Ma'an's Gaza correspondent, Ibrahim Mohammed Khalil, told MADA today that he received a call on the morning of 10 July from a colleague in the neighbouring office, who informed him that there were burn marks on Ma'an's main entrance door. When Khalil went to the office at approximately 7:30 am, he discovered that a large portion of the door had been burned down and found a plastic bottle that contained combustible material.

"The building's security guard made the discovery at 5:00 am but didn't want to disturb us so early. We were lucky there was nothing really flammable near the main entrance," Khalil noted.

When asked about the possible reason for this attempted arson attack, Khalil said "the agency has not received any objections concerning any published articles and has not received threats in a long time, so we are very surprised. This was completely unexpected."

MADA calls upon the authorities in Gaza to launch an investigation into the attack and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice.