French news agency Agence France-Presse has urged Israel to facilitate the immediate evacuation of its freelance journalists from Gaza, warning that they face an “appalling” and “untenable” situation in the war-ravaged enclave.
AFP, one of the world’s largest news services, made the appeal on Tuesday after an association of its journalists warned that their colleagues in Gaza were facing starvation.
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“For months, we have watched helplessly as their living conditions deteriorated dramatically,” the Paris-based agency said in a statement.
“Their situation is now untenable, despite their exemplary courage, professional commitment, and resilience.”
While Palestinian freelancers have been crucial to informing the world since Israel banned foreign journalists from Gaza, Israeli authorities must allow their evacuation as “their lives are in danger”, the agency said.
On Monday, the Society of Journalists, an association of AFP journalists that is independent of management, warned that their colleagues in the enclave were at risk of dying of hunger.
“We fear learning of their deaths at any moment, and it is unbearable for us,” the association said in a statement.
“Along with a few others, they are now the only ones reporting on what is happening in the Gaza Strip. International media has been banned from entering this territory for nearly two years. We refuse to watch them die.”
The association highlighted the cases of several journalists, including a 30-year-old photographer, identified as Bashar, who recently posted on social media that his “body is thin” and he had lost the strength to work.
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“Since AFP was founded in August 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, we have had injured and imprisoned colleagues among us, but none of us can recall ever seeing a colleague die of hunger,” the association said.
UK charity Oxfam on Tuesday also warned that its staff in Gaza were among those facing starvation.
“At Oxfam, we are not just witnessing this crisis, we are living it,” Bushra Khalidi, policy lead in the occupied Palestinian territory and Gaza, told Al Jazeera.
“My colleague, she told me on Saturday that she went to work without even water, with eating a single falafel just to keep going, and she still showed up to work,” Khalidi said.
The warnings came as Gaza health officials on Tuesday reported that at least 15 Palestinians, including four children, had starved to death over the previous 24 hours, bringing the total number of malnutrition deaths since the start of Israel’s war to 101.
Israel blocked the entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza in March, but has since May allowed a limited amount of supplies through the controversial Israel and United States-backed aid agency GHF.
Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians seeking food aid since the launch of the GHF, which has been boycotted by the United Nations and leading aid agencies, most of them near the group’s distribution points, according to the UN Human Rights Office.
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