Israel is starving journalists in Gaza to silence the truth. It must be stopped
PICTURE: Palestinian journalist Sami Shehada lost his leg in an attack in Gaza, while he and other journalists working in the territory are also being deliberately starved by Israel (United Nations)
International Federation of Journalists
The hunger crisis in the besieged Gaza strip has reached new and astonishing levels of desperation, with a third of the population not eating for multiple days in a row. This is the grim conclusion delivered by a senior official of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on 21 July.
Gazans are dying from a lack of humanitarian assistance every day, and this could be prevented if Israel were to exercise the necessary political will.
Read ‘Reporters in Gaza bear witness and suffer tragic consequences, here
Among those being starved are Gazan journalists and media workers, the only ones that have been reporting on Israel’s atrocities in the enclave since 7 October 2023. The Israeli government’s ban on foreign media, citing ‘security concerns’, not only prevents journalists from doing their work, but deprives the public of its right to freedom of expression, which includes the right to receive and impart information without interference from public authorities and regardless of frontiers.
Agence France-Presse’s (AFP) journalists’ union, the Societe des Journalistes (SDJ), warns in a statement that its colleagues in Gaza are at serious risk of starvation and demands urgent intervention to evacuate them. ‘We risk learning of their deaths at any moment, and this is unbearable for us […] We refuse to see them die.’
Read AFP’s article here
The IFJ’s Vice-President and President of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, Nasser Abu Bakr, appealed to the world to save the lives of more than two million people in Gaza living without food, water or shelter under bombardment, including journalists who continue to report despite crimes and famine.
Abu Baker called on the media ‘to report on the unprecedented tragedy that are the genocide and the starvation taking place in Gaza’.
IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: ‘It is imperative that the Israeli government stops weaponising starvation against the people of Gaza.’
‘Local reporters are the only ones bearing witness to Israel’s atrocities, and starving them to death means silencing the truth, which is considered a war crime according to the International Criminal Court
‘We urge governments across the world, the UN General Assembly and the international community to intervene to halt this human-made catastrophe and to put pressure on the Israeli government to allow foreign journalists to enter Gaza and facilitate the evacuations of local journalists in need.’
Over 171 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since 7 October, according to IFJ data.
- This article was first published here
