Haaretz

07/22/2025

The journalists’ union of the AFP news agency issued a statement warning that its members, journalists living and reporting in the Gaza Strip, are at risk of starvation due to the continued blockade of food and humanitarian aid by Israel.

“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. We refuse to see them die,” read the statement from the Societe des Journalistes (SDJ), whose membership is drawn from AFP newsroom journalists.

The SDJ said that the AFP operates in Gaza with a freelance reporter, three photographers, and six freelance videographers, as its permanent staff in the enclave left in early 2024.

“Along with a few other [journalists], they are now the only ones reporting on what is happening in the Gaza Strip. International media have been barred from entering the area for many months.”

In view of the dire conditions, the AFP said that it was now attempting to evacuate its freelancers from Gaza despite their work being “crucial to informing the world” because “their lives are in danger,” and urged the “Israeli authorities to allow them to evacuate immediately along with their families.”

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.