Chilling live tweets as windows shatter around journalists in Gaza City

 Twitter made for unnerving reading on Tuesday night as international journalists covering the Gaza conflict live tweeted while air strikes rocked the very buildings they were sheltering in.

 One strike hit an unknown target so close to two of the hotels where international journalists were sheltering that it blew the windows out.

The attack came as the Israeli Defence Force warned journalists to avoid being used as human shields.

Early this morning, the Telegraph's Phoebe Greenwood reported: "Enormous explosion near hotel in #Gaza City smashed glass windows through the building. That was very close indeed. No ceasefire yet".

She was joined by a flood of tweets from other journalists, including reporters from the BBC and from French news agency Agence France-Presse, whose office building was among media offices targeted in an Israeli strike earlier in the day.

 Moments before the strike, AFP reporter Sara Hussein tweeted: "That awkward email to your family. Dear parents, the building housing our office was bombed today but I'm doing fine. Hope you're well, Sara".

Minutes later, with the power to the Deira hotel knocked out, she added: "Oh my god MASSIVE explosion here. Okay, but really strong, shook us a lot. Hear broken glass. #Gaza".

NBC News correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin added: "window in my room has been shattered by an Israeli airstrike on an open field next to our hotel in #gaza @NBCNews".

Journalists at the nearby Beach Hotel also reported that the windows in the building had been shattered. Others posted images of journalists in flak jackets and helmets inspecting the damage after the attack. No journalists were reported hurt during the attack.

 Also on Tuesday night, the Twitter and Facebook accounts of Israeli vice prime minister Silvan Shalom were hacked by pro-Palestinian activists who published a flood of posts supporting the Palestinian cause.

Earlier on Tuesday, the building housing AFP's Gaza City office was struck by three rockets. "I was in the office with a fixer and suddenly we heard an explosion," AFP photographer Mahmud Hams, who was in the fourth-floor office at the time and was unharmed, said.

"I grabbed my cameras and left the office with the fixer and there was smoke in the hallways. We ran out of the building," he said.

The Israeli military confirmed targeting the eight-storey building in Gaza City's Rimal neighbourhood. "Minutes ago, we surgically targeted a Hamas intelligence operations center on 7th floor of a media building in Gaza. Direct hit confirmed," the the army said via its Twitter account.

"The Hamas terrorists weren't in the media building to be interviewed. They were there to communicate with field operatives and plan attacks," it added.

"Warning to reporters in Gaza: Stay away from Hamas operatives and facilities. Hamas, a terrorist group, will use you as human shields."

The Tuesday night attacks came after three Israeli strikes on buildings that house media offices, which the military defended, saying each raid targeted militant facilities.

The first two strikes came on Sunday, when war planes bombed the Showa and Housari building in the Rimal neighbourhood, causing extensive damage and wounding six journalists, including one who lost a leg.

The building housed various media outlets, including international stations and the Hamas-affiliated al-Quds channel.

The second raid hit the Shuruq building, which also housed various media outlets, including the Hamas-affiliated al-Aqsa television station.

The Shuruq building was hit again on Monday, in a strike that killed a senior Islamic Jihad militant, according to the Islamist faction.

Israel confirmed the attack, with its intelligence services saying the strike had targeted "senior Islamic Jihad officials" who were on the premises.

On Monday, the Israeli military said its initial strikes on the Showa and Housari and Shuruq buildings had targeted rooftop operational communications belonging to Hamas, adding that it had sought to minimise civilian casualties.

But the strikes were condemned by the local Foreign Press Association as well as international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders