The AFP journalists’ association on Monday warned that journalists working with the news agency in the Gaza Strip are facing extreme food shortages and risk starving amid the ongoing Israeli blockade of aid delivery and strikes.

After the AFP warning, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has urged Israel to grant foreign journalists access to Gaza, as the risk of famine deepens in the besieged Palestinian territory. “I ask that the free and independent press be allowed to access Gaza to show what is happening there and to bear witness,” Barrot told France’s Inter radio station on Tuesday.

A growing number of deaths due to malnutrition and dehydration have been reported in Gaza in recent days. Israeli forces have reportedly killed more than 1,000 Palestinians as they were trying to access food in Gaza since the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operations at the end of May, according to the United Nations.

‘None of us can recall seeing a colleague die of hunger’

“Since AFP was founded in August 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, we have had wounded and prisoners in our ranks, but none of us can recall seeing a colleague die of hunger,” the SDJ, the French news agency’s journalists’ association, wrote on X.

The association noted that the AFP has been working with a team of 10 in the besieged Palestinian territory: a freelance reporter, three photographers, and six freelance video journalists. The union shared a social media post by one of the photographers, Bashar Taleb.

“I don’t have the power to cover media anymore. My body is lean and I no longer have the ability to walk,” Taleb, 30, wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday. “I wish Mr Macron could help me get out of this hell,” he said, adding that his elder brother died on Sunday due to hunger.

Despite a monthly salary, AFP staff in Gaza are neither able to buy anything due to shortages nor travel for reportage due to the lack of fuel, the union said. They also said cars are at a risk of being targeted by the Israeli air force.  

The union mentioned another journalist, Ahlam. “Every time I leave the tent to cover an event, conduct an interview, or document a fact, I don’t know if I’ll come back alive,” she said, pointing to food and water scarcity as the biggest problem.

“We see their situation worsening. They are young and their strength is leaving them. Most no longer have the physical ability to travel the enclave to do their job. Their heartbreaking cries for help are now daily,” the SDJ said, adding: “We refuse to see them die.”

Since October 7, 2023, over 200 journalists and media persons have been killed in Gaza.  

The genocide continues

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since October 7, 2023, killing more than 59,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

On Tuesday alone, Israeli forces killed at least 43 Palestinians, including 10 aid seekers, in attacks across Gaza since dawn, a day after tanks pushed into southern and eastern parts of central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah city for the first time.

According to Haaretz, on Friday, medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported a surge in signs of famine, describing it as an “epidemic”. Hundreds of people are reportedly suffering from exhaustion, severe malnutrition and memory loss, all of which are symptoms of prolonged starvation.

Dr Suhaib Al-Hams, director of the field hospital in the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone, warned of an impending "wave of deaths" due to organ failure among displaced individuals.

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