BBC, Reuters Make Gaza Statement On Journalists Facing Starvation

Some of the world’s biggest news organizations including BBC News and Reuters have said journalists in Gaza now face the “threat of starvation.”

A joint statement from the AFP, AP, BBC News and Reuters urged Israeli authorities to “allow journalists in and out of Gaza” and said “it is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people there.”

“We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families,” said the statement. “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.”

The news orgs are “deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation” is now a “hardship” faced by their journalists, they added.

Journalists are not allowed in and out of Gaza and so the news orgs have been relying solely on reporters who are on the ground and can’t leave.

Yesterday, a separate AFP statement said “without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die.”

AFP quoted its photographers and reporters on the ground, who said they were starving, fearing for their lives and lacking the strength to work.

Around 59,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the conflict started on October 7 2023, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Reporting in recent weeks has focused on killings near controversial aid stations run by the U.S. and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.