BBC News and news agencies Reuters, AFP and AP have published a rare joint statement to sound the alarm over the “threat of starvation” facing journalists in Gaza.
The news organisations joined many previous calls calling on Israel to let journalists move freely in and out of Gaza.
The statement said: “We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families. For many months, these independent journalists have been the world’s eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering.
“Journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in warzones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them.
“We once again urge the Israeli authorities to allow journalists in and out of Gaza. It is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people there.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists also called on Israeli authorities to “protect” and “feed” reporters in Gaza, following more than 100 aid organisations warning that “mass starvation” is spreading across Gaza.
CPJ regional director Sara Qudah said: “Israel is starving Gazan journalists into silence. They are not just reporters, they are frontline witnesses, abandoned as international media were pulled out and denied entry.
“The world must act now: protect them, feed them, and allow them to recover while other journalists step in to help report. Our response to their courageous 650 plus-days of war reporting cannot simply be to let them starve to death.”
This week CPJ launched a Voices From Gaza video series of Palestinian journalists describing the challenges they face while working, and it has also published the testimony of six journalists who described how starvation, dizziness, brain fog, and sickness threatened their ability to report.
The CPJ believes that at least 186 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Lebanon since the current war began with the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
This week the right-leaning Daily Express “created ripples” with its depicting a baby starving in Gaza. The headline read: “For pity’s sake stop this now.”
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