BBC team in Gaza narrowly escaped Israeli airstrike

Jerusalem: A BBC team covering the violence between Israel and Gaza narrowly escaped an alleged airstrike on a neighbouring building by the Israeli military.

The dramatic pictures show reporters running for shelter as an explosion makes a loud sound, followed by the dramatic scene of a building crumbling.

Although Israel hasn't admitted responsibility for the attack, it happened close to several of the military targets of Israel. Normally, press teams are given the go-ahead to report risk-free from specific places, but the BBC has not explicitly stated if it believed the region to be secure, Arab News reported.

Separately, a large explosion occurred on Sunday night when BBC reporter Rushdi Abu Alouf was live on television, forcing him to duck for safety.

Alouf is shown in the video clearly shaken by the explosion and tells the broadcaster Maryam Moshiri that the attack was "quite close."

Moshiri, who shared the clip on Twitter, later posted: “Rushdi and his teams moved away as soon as possible.”

Other reporters have also been caught in tense circumstances close to the front line. When a fireball burst behind Youmna El-Sayed of Al Jazeera, she was forced to run for shelter and scream as she was reporting live on "barrages of rockets" entering Gaza.

On Monday morning, Israel stepped up its attacks on the Gaza Strip and imposed a "complete siege of Gaza" after declaring war and promising to destroy the "military and governing capabilities" of Hamas's rulers.

At least 700 people have died in Israel and nearly 500 in Gaza since Hamas began the attack on Israel on Saturday. Thousands more have reportedly been injured on both sides.