AFP Calls for Urgent Evacuation of Journalists Trapped in Starving Gaza
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July 22 2025 – Palestine/Israel –
Agence France-Presse (AFP) has issued an urgent alert: its remaining journalists in Gaza are on the brink of starvation and could die unless immediate action is taken. The AFP journalists’ union warns that the few local reporters still working in the besieged territory are enduring extreme hunger, exhaustion, and fear. Despite continuing to document the war, they now face the very real threat of death not from bombs, but from hunger.
Only ten AFP contributors are left in Gaza: one writer, three photographers, and six videographers. Many have lost family members to Israeli airstrikes. Now, they can barely move or work due to severe food shortages. One photographer, Bashar, revealed on social media that his brother recently died of hunger, and he can no longer work, saying, “My body is thin. I am exhausted.” Another journalist, Ahlam, described leaving her tent each day not knowing if she would return alive.
Though AFP continues to pay their salaries, money is meaningless in a place where food is unavailable or unaffordable. Fuel is nearly impossible to find. Journalists are weak, dehydrated, and collapsing. AFP’s union states this is the first time in the agency’s history that its reporters are at risk of dying from starvation. “If nothing is done, they will die. Not from the war. But from hunger,” the union said in a public appeal.
AFP is calling on Israeli authorities to allow emergency evacuations for these journalists and their families. The agency has managed to evacuate some staff in the past, but is struggling to secure new approvals. French officials and press freedom groups are now echoing the call, urging Israel to grant immediate humanitarian access and foreign press entry into Gaza.
Meanwhile, the UN reports that humanitarian workers, doctors, and journalists are fainting from hunger, describing Gaza as “hell on earth.” Food lines are targeted by snipers, and people are dying while trying to eat. At least 90 people have died of starvation so far, and conditions are worsening by the hour.
The last journalists in Gaza are not just reporting the crisis. They are living it, and unless the world acts, they will not survive it.
References –
AFP journalists in Gaza at risk of starvation, warns journalists’ association
